A system for managing data traffic in a multi-user multiple-simultaneous-access (MUMSA) environment, for example in a code reuse multiple access (CRMA) environment or other physical environment having true random access with more than one transmission present at the same time, the system including a channel load estimator for multiple users, a congestion threshold calculator using the estimate of channel load to calculate threshold on an ongoing basis, a tester at each terminal performing an experiment using that congestion threshold value and a random number generator to determine if a packet is eligible to be transmitted, a traffic controller for transferring downstream virtual channel traffic and a redistributing mechanism for redistributing user terminals to affiliate with the proper downstream virtual channel.