A system for managing radio access resources, comprising: a joint radio resource management/transport resource management unit configured to communicate with a plurality of radio units over a transport network, whereby communication signals are at least partly carried on a shared medium in the transport network, to jointly allocate radio resources at the radio unit and transport resources on the transport network including shared transport resources associated with the shared medium in response to requests from wireless terminals requesting access to radio resources from the radio units, to send a radio resource allocation schedule to the plurality of radio units that defines radio resource allocations for the wireless terminals, and to generate a transport resource allocation schedule that defines transport resource allocations for the wireless terminals; and a transport resource controller configured to receive the transport resource allocation schedule and to map user data to physical transport resources on the transport network in response to the transport resource allocation schedule, wherein the joint radio resource management/transport resource management unit is configured to receive a request for access from a wireless terminal, to determine availability of a radio resource and a transport resource in response to the request for access, and to schedule the radio resource and the transport resource in response to availability of the radio resource and the transport resource, wherein the radio resource comprises a first radio resource, and wherein the joint radio resource management/transport resource management unit is further configured to check for availability of a second radio resource in a next best neighboring cell in response to unavailability of the radio resource in a first cell that is most suited to serve the requesting wireless terminal, and to temporarily allocate the second resource in response to availability of the second resource, while the availability of the transport resources is checked. a joint radio resource management/transport resource management unit configured to communicate with a plurality of radio units over a transport network, whereby communication signals are at least partly carried on a shared medium in the transport network, to jointly allocate radio resources at the radio unit and transport resources on the transport network including shared transport resources associated with the shared medium in response to requests from wireless terminals requesting access to radio resources from the radio units, to send a radio resource allocation schedule to the plurality of radio units that defines radio resource allocations for the wireless terminals, and to generate a transport resource allocation schedule that defines transport resource allocations for the wireless terminals; and a transport resource controller configured to receive the transport resource allocation schedule and to map user data to physical transport resources on the transport network in response to the transport resource allocation schedule, wherein the joint radio resource management/transport resource management unit is configured to receive a request for access from a wireless terminal, to determine availability of a radio resource and a transport resource in response to the request for access, and to schedule the radio resource and the transport resource in response to availability of the radio resource and the transport resource, wherein the radio resource comprises a first radio resource, and wherein the joint radio resource management/transport resource management unit is further configured to check for availability of a second radio resource in a next best neighboring cell in response to unavailability of the radio resource in a first cell that is most suited to serve the requesting wireless terminal, and to temporarily allocate the second resource in response to availability of the second resource, while the availability of the transport resources is checked.