A method and apparatus for scheduling the transmission of data packets over a multihop wireless backhaul network in which delay guarantees through the network may be advantageously ensured. Illustratively, a novel packet scheduling scheme is provided which is advantageously based on an existing scheduling policy for wireline networks and for which a delay guarantee (based on the delay characteristics of the existing scheduling policy) can be advantageously ensured. In one embodiment, an even-odd link activation framework is defined for a given multihop wireless backhaul network, and an associated scheduling policy based on an arbitrary existing scheduling policy for wireline networks is derived and adopted. In such a case, the derived scheduling policy, when applied to the given multihop wireless backhaul network, advantageously ensures a worst-case delay guarantee of approximately twice that of the existing scheduling policy for wireline networks.