1. A system for gathering bandwidth management information in a communications network, the communication network having a plurality of network conditions and including connections with a plurality of service-specific bandwidth managers, the system comprising: a high-level bandwidth manager including a user interface for displaying information; at least one observation communications element associated with a service-specific bandwidth manager of the plurality of service-specific bandwidth managers, wherein each observation communications element provides associated ongoing observation information to the high-level bandwidth manager, each associated ongoing observation information respectively responsive to at least one network condition affected by the associated service-specific bandwidth manager, and wherein the information displayed on the user interface is responsive to the associated ongoing observation information from each of the associated observation communications elements.