A station of a wireless local area network, the station includes a joining unit configured to join one of a plurality of cliques or to create a new clique, wherein each of the plurality of cliques includes at least one station and wherein each station in a clique can hear all other stations within the clique. The station also includes a communication unit configured to communicate with a server that assigns a unique value to each station in the clique when the station joins the network, wherein the value is used to determine a rank associated with each station within the clique. The server is configured to maintain a system map that defines information associated with each of the plurality of cliques and all of the stations in the network. The station also includes a listening unit configured to listen for a predefined signal such that upon receipt of the predefined signal each station in the clique is configured to begin transmission based on an order determined by a ranking of the stations in the clique.