Systems and methodologies are described herein that facilitate congestion control in a wireless communication system. As described herein, an access network and associated terminals can utilize a token bucket access control mechanism, through which respective terminals can be allotted access tokens and/or other units for access to the access network. For example, upon requesting access to a given network, a user of the network can determine whether sufficient access tokens have been accumulated, based on which the request can be selectively allowed or denied. As further described herein, multiple token bucket mechanisms can be utilized, which can correspond to respective packet flows or the like. Additionally, token bucket access control can be implemented as described herein in cooperation with conventional access persistence functionality. Further aspects described herein facilitate the adjustment of token bucket parameters for network access control based on network loading.