A method for transmitting data at a high rate in a wireless LAN is provided. A wireless access point (100) requests reliable node information from a wireless terminal (120) having a transfer rate equal to or less than a predetermined transfer rate if data to be transmitted to the terminal occurs. The terminal (120) produces a frame containing information related to reliable nodes (100,110) that can communicate with the terminal and information of greatest transfer rates between the reliable nodes and the terminal, and transmits the frame to the access point. The access point (100) selects an optimal relay node from the reliable nodes, based on the greatest transfer rates between the reliable nodes and the access point and transfer rates between the reliable nodes and the terminal, and determines if a relay gain exists when using the optimal node. If the relay gain exists, the access point performs relay transmission to the terminal; otherwise, it performs direct transmission to it.