In a code division multiple access (CDMA) communications system including one or more terminals (such as customer premise equipments, CPEs) that communicate with a node (such as an Internet gateway) via at least a random access channel and a reservation-oriented channel, various schemes of managing communications traffic among the channels are provided. Decisions as to the channel on which a given terminal may transmit may be based on: traffic statistics (such as packet size or average data rate over a time period), traffic content (such as packet type), the terminal's output buffer loading (queue state, or "Q-state"), a history of the terminal's output buffer loading (one or more "Q-states"), and so forth. In one application, decisions in managing traffic in a live user's web browsing sessions may involve intelligent ascertainment of whether a given terminal is busy based on traffic analysis or output buffer loading.