Apparatus and method for supporting wireless downlink and uplink connections. In the downlink direction, an apparatus receives from the downlink node a request to communicate using an allocation of radio resources specified by the downlink node, and transmits to the downlink node a grant to communicate using at least a portion of the specified allocation of radio resources. In the uplink direction, the apparatus sends a request to a downlink node to communicate using a specified allocation of radio resources, and receives from the downlink node a grant to communicate using at least a portion of the specified allocation of radio resources.