attempt to hand off one or more cpe e g 108 a c 118 120 and 122 that are using the most airlink resources to another base station e g 106 a this third method is similar to the second method but this method analyzes both the amount of data that each cpe is transferring as well as the modulation and coding scheme that is used by each cpe the airlink resource usage for each cpe must be calculated from the measured amount of bytes transferred during the measurement period e g currbytecount k n in addition to tracking the modulation and coding scheme associated with the cpe uplink and or downlink in one embodiment the third method may make a determination based upon an average or peak uplink and or downlink data rates in a fourth congestion prime management scenario the base station e g 116 a may reduce the data rate for cpe e g 108 a c 118 120 and 122 that are using lower order modulations or that are using the most airlink resources this method may be used if a cpe cannot be handed off to another base station as in the first second and third methods described above under this method the maximum data rate of the cpe that are using the lowest order modulations or the cpe using the most airlink resources is reduced this action to reduce the data rate frees up airlink resources which may then be used by other cpe.