A wireless network with distributed medium access control allows establishing of a virtual channel between a source node and a destination node via at least one intermediate node. The virtual channel may be established for the entire duration of a communication between the source node and the destination node, and, to establish the virtual channel, a request handler can transmit a virtual channel request, requesting an allocation of transmission resources for the virtual channel. Based on the virtual channel request, a virtual channel confirmation can be generated by the destination node and can be returned to the source node, indicating an allocation of the resources for the virtual channel. A communication handler can then transmit data from the source node to the destination node using the available transmission resources.