The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for controlling a radio frequency resource between a first and a second wireless unit and a base station to provide overload control of the radio frequency resource based on an estimate thereof. For example, when feedback information is unavailable for the radio frequency resource at the base station. The method includes estimating the radio frequency resource used by the first and second wireless units in a wireless data network. The method further includes providing an overload control at the base station based on the estimated radio frequency resource. Based on this estimated radio frequency resource, a command may be issued by the base station on a reverse link. For example, a rise over thermal resource may be estimated to issue a rate control command to a wireless unit. By providing a desired timely rate control command on the reverse link, the base station may control a data rate of the wireless unit, maximizing throughput of the reverse link. In this way, a base station may control a rise over thermal resource metric to relieve an overload condition at the base station in a relatively high-speed wireless data network.