A congestion management system for managing congestion on a communication network, the communication network including a network node having a congestion level, the system comprising: a congestion controller, the congestion controller configured to: determine congestion pre-emption criteria corresponding to the congestion level; create a list of potential service pre-emption candidates associated with a service pre-emption criteria that is at least equal to the congestion pre-emption criteria, the list of potential service pre-emption candidates being at least a sub-set of a plurality of services on the node; and determine, based at least on the service pre-emption criteria, whether to pre-empt at least one of the potential service pre-emption candidates on the list, wherein: i) - the congestion level is one of a plurality of congestion levels and the congestion pre-emption criteria is one of a plurality of congestion pre-emption criteria, the system further comprising: - a congestion control configuration database, the congestion control configuration database including a mapping of each of the plurality of congestion levels to a different one of the plurality of congestion pre-emption criteria; and - the congestion controller further configured to: -- retrieve, from the congestion control configuration database, congestion pre-emption criteria corresponding to the congestion level; or wherein ii) - the system further comprises a service context database, the service context database including a list of the plurality of services on the node, wherein each of the plurality of services is associated with one of a plurality of service pre-emption criteria; and - the congestion controller further configured to: -- retrieve, from the service context database, potential service pre-emption candidates associated with service pre-emption criteria that is at least equal to the congestion pre-emption criteria. a congestion controller, the congestion controller configured to: determine congestion pre-emption criteria corresponding to the congestion level; create a list of potential service pre-emption candidates associated with a service pre-emption criteria that is at least equal to the congestion pre-emption criteria, the list of potential service pre-emption candidates being at least a sub-set of a plurality of services on the node; and determine, based at least on the service pre-emption criteria, whether to pre-empt at least one of the potential service pre-emption candidates on the list, determine congestion pre-emption criteria corresponding to the congestion level; create a list of potential service pre-emption candidates associated with a service pre-emption criteria that is at least equal to the congestion pre-emption criteria, the list of potential service pre-emption candidates being at least a sub-set of a plurality of services on the node; and determine, based at least on the service pre-emption criteria, whether to pre-empt at least one of the potential service pre-emption candidates on the list, i) - the congestion level is one of a plurality of congestion levels and the congestion pre-emption criteria is one of a plurality of congestion pre-emption criteria, the system further comprising: - a congestion control configuration database, the congestion control configuration database including a mapping of each of the plurality of congestion levels to a different one of the plurality of congestion pre-emption criteria; and - the congestion controller further configured to: -- retrieve, from the congestion control configuration database, congestion pre-emption criteria corresponding to the congestion level; or wherein - a congestion control configuration database, the congestion control configuration database including a mapping of each of the plurality of congestion levels to a different one of the plurality of congestion pre-emption criteria; and - the congestion controller further configured to: -- retrieve, from the congestion control configuration database, congestion pre-emption criteria corresponding to the congestion level; or wherein -- retrieve, from the congestion control configuration database, congestion pre-emption criteria corresponding to the congestion level; ii) - the system further comprises a service context database, the service context database including a list of the plurality of services on the node, wherein each of the plurality of services is associated with one of a plurality of service pre-emption criteria; and - the congestion controller further configured to: -- retrieve, from the service context database, potential service pre-emption candidates associated with service pre-emption criteria that is at least equal to the congestion pre-emption criteria. - the congestion controller further configured to: -- retrieve, from the service context database, potential service pre-emption candidates associated with service pre-emption criteria that is at least equal to the congestion pre-emption criteria. -- retrieve, from the service context database, potential service pre-emption candidates associated with service pre-emption criteria that is at least equal to the congestion pre-emption criteria.