A communication network element (136) comprises traffic scheduler logic capable of scheduling transmission of a first category of queued traffic (220) across a backhaul interface (158) in accordance with a rate control value (210). The communication network element further comprises traffic manager logic (250) capable of scheduling transmission of a second category of queued traffic (260) across the backhaul interface (158) in accordance with a determined backhaul bandwidth allocation, the backhaul bandwidth allocation being based on a determination of available bandwidth across the backhaul interface not required for scheduled first category traffic.