A method for data transmission in a wireless communication network utilizes an on-demand multiple access method with a fair queuing service discipline for efficient utilization of the limited bandwidth available in the network by sharing bandwidth among the remote hosts. In one embodiment, the base station broadcasts the system virtual time and the assigned shares of service classes to each of the wireless remotes. Each remote host computes its own service tag and reports it to the base station, which assigns transmit permits based on the service tag values and the available data slots. If a packet is lost or in error, the sending remote recomputes the service tag values of all its queued packets, including the packet whose transmission failed. Alternatively, the remote informs the base station of its queue size and the base station computes service tags for each remote based on the service shares of the remote and the available data slots. If a packet is lost or in error, the base station recomputes the service tag values for that remote host based on the current system virtual time. In an alternate embodiment, the AP or wireless node maintains a packet queue and a head-of-line tag. If a packet is lost, only the head-of-line tag needs to be changed. Once the head-of-line packet has been transmitted successfully, the rest of the queued packets will automatically receive the correct tag, the recomputed head-of-line tag plus appropriate increments. For half-duplex, both the uplink and downlink queues at the access points are managed as if there is only one system virtual time. For full-duplex, separate system virtual times for the uplink and the downlink traffic may be used. Remotes may also be divided into one or more separate groups, with each group having a different priority and receiving a different system virtual time. Service tags of all other remotes remain unaffected by the retransmission of a packet from any particular remote, meaning that the QoS experienced by the other remotes does not suffer.