Fast congestion detection is implemented in a wireless radio access network (RAN) to mitigate congestion by classifying bearers into bearer types using bearer metrics and monitoring bearers for type specific anomalies to obtain anomaly data. Congestion is detected based on the anomaly data to obtain congestion information that is exported to a network node to mitigate network congestion. Bearer metrics include radio link protocol (RLC) buffer size information, physical resource block (PRB) utilization information, and transmission burst interval information. The transmission burst interval information includes information on time intervals between successive time periods when a RLC buffer is empty. The bearers are classified into Type I and Type II bearers. Type I bearers are bearers displaying bursty data transfer behavior, and Type II bearers are bearers displaying a continuous stream of data transfer behavior.