An approach for managing dynamic traffic on a shared medium, for example, on a SONET ring, makes use of a central arbiter that communicates with stations coupled to the medium. Each station makes requests to change bandwidth for dynamic traffic entering the medium at that station, and also implements a congestion avoidance algorithm that is coordinated with its requests for changes in bandwidth. The central arbiter responds to the requests from the stations to provide a fair allocation of bandwidth available on the shared medium.
