Abstract: A base station utilizing a dormant polling protocol transmits polling sequences to a plurality of remote transceivers during periods of heavy loading. During periods of light loading, the base station stops polling and enters into a dormant state, listening for communication request from the remote transceivers. Upon receiving such a request, the base station immediately responds by servicing the requesting remote transceiver. In this way, the base station provides optimized utilization of the communication channel during periods of heavy and light loading conditions. The features of the dormant polling protocol may incorporate any polling protocol such as those described herein.