A method for congestion management in a satellite communications system (100,110,120,130) comprising a processing satellite, wherein the processing satellite comprises an on-board traffic switch, the method comprising: determining a utilized capacity level with respect to at least one port of the on-board traffic switch; providing a capacity report to a system controller, wherein the capacity report indicates the determined utilized capacity level for each port; determining that one or more of the utilized capacity levels indicates a congestion condition of a respective port; providing a congestion notification to one or more source satellite terminals (134a - 134n) that each has data packets destined for at least one of the ports with respect to which the utilized capacity level indicates the congestion condition; receiving a feedback report from each of the source satellite terminals (134a - 134n) to which the congestion notification report was provided, wherein each feedback report indicates a quantity of the data packets destined for each port exhibiting the congestion condition and a breakdown of each quantity of data packets by priority level; determining an uplink allocation for each of the source satellite terminals (134a - 134n) that has data packets destined for the ports exhibiting the congestion condition, wherein each uplink allocation is based on the feedback report received from the respective satellite terminals (134a - 134n), and wherein the uplink allocation to all of the source satellite terminals (134a - 134n) is configured to alleviate the congestion condition of each port that exhibits the condition; and sending the respective uplink allocation to each of the source satellite terminals(134a - 134n) that has data packets destined for the ports exhibiting the congestion condition. determining a utilized capacity level with respect to at least one port of the on-board traffic switch; providing a capacity report to a system controller, wherein the capacity report indicates the determined utilized capacity level for each port; determining that one or more of the utilized capacity levels indicates a congestion condition of a respective port; providing a congestion notification to one or more source satellite terminals (134a - 134n) that each has data packets destined for at least one of the ports with respect to which the utilized capacity level indicates the congestion condition; receiving a feedback report from each of the source satellite terminals (134a - 134n) to which the congestion notification report was provided, wherein each feedback report indicates a quantity of the data packets destined for each port exhibiting the congestion condition and a breakdown of each quantity of data packets by priority level; determining an uplink allocation for each of the source satellite terminals (134a - 134n) that has data packets destined for the ports exhibiting the congestion condition, wherein each uplink allocation is based on the feedback report received from the respective satellite terminals (134a - 134n), and wherein the uplink allocation to all of the source satellite terminals (134a - 134n) is configured to alleviate the congestion condition of each port that exhibits the condition; and sending the respective uplink allocation to each of the source satellite terminals(134a - 134n) that has data packets destined for the ports exhibiting the congestion condition.