In a wireless local area network having an access point (AP) and at least one station, wherein data is prioritized by access categories, a method for admission control begins by calculating a transmission budget for each access category (AC) and a total transmission budget for all ACs requiring admission control. A traffic stream admission request is sent from a station to the AP. A medium time value for the traffic stream is calculated at the AP, based on information extracted from the admission request. The medium time value is compared to the transmission budget for the AC corresponding to the traffic stream and the total transmission budget. The traffic stream is accepted if the medium time value is not greater than both the transmission budget for the AC corresponding to the traffic stream and the total transmission budget; otherwise, the traffic stream is rejected.