An exemplary method for reserving medium access in an ad hoc network comprises transmitting a reservation request by a reservation owner, the reservation request identifying a reservation allocation, a reservation target, and a reservation type. The reservation type identifies exclusive use of the reservation allocation by the reservation owner and the reservation target during a reservation period. The reservation target may employ a prioritized contention access (PCA) scheme to access the reservation allocation. Alternatively, an idle portion of the reservation allocation may be subdivided into a plurality of slots including even slots and odd slots, and the reservation owner gains access to the idle portion by starting to transmit during an even slot, while the reservation target gains access to the idle portion by starting to transmit during an odd slot. In yet another embodiment, the reservation owner transmits an outgoing clear to send (CTS) communication to the reservation target to transfer ownership of the reservation allocation to the reservation target, and receives an incoming clear to send (CTS) communication from the reservation target to regain ownership of the reservation allocation.