In widely deployed wireless “hot-spot” networks, nodes frequently join or leave, inelastic/elastic and saturated/non-satuarted flows coexist. In such dynamic and diverse environments, it is challenging to maximize the channel utilization while providing satisfactory user experiences. In this invention, one proposes a novel contention-on-demand (CoD) MAC scheme to address this problem. The CoD scheme consists of a fixed-CW algorithm, a dynamic-CW algorithm, and an admission control unit. The fixed-CW algorithm allows elastic flows to access limited system bandwidth; the dynamic-CW algorithm enables inelastic flows to contend for channel on demand and quickly adapt to network change; and the admission control unit rejects overloaded traffic for providing good user experiences. One then performs an asymptotic analysis to develop a simple but efficient admission control rule. Finally, extensive simulations verify that the scheme is very effective and the theoretical result is very accurate.