A wireless communication system (100) includes a network (102), one or more mobile stations (103), and a medium access control (MAC) protocol (201). The MAC protocol (201) includes a state transition design (400) and a control channel design (500). The state transition design (400) includes null (401), dormant (402), standby (403), and active states (404) for each mobile station (103). The control channel design (500) includes a common control channel (501), a slow control channel (502) and a fast control channel (503), and is adapted to control communications from the network to each mobile station.