communication in this scenario target 504 in accordance with the principles of the invention detects potential collisions and performs resolution the collision resolution feature of the invention is also discussed in related commonly owned co pending u s application ser no 08 825 940 filed apr 1 1997 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety target microcontroller 204 is programmed to administer the collision resolution protocol of the invention fig6 b illustrates a flow diagram for the execution of the collision resolution protocol by target 504 and tag 502 510 for collision resolution case 514 depicted in fig5 b before communications are established between target 504 and any tag e g 502 510 step 602 microcontroller 204 controls target 504 to periodically generate and transmit a u201c wakeup u201d message step 604 originating from host 102 via rf signals 506 shown in fig5 b target 504 then awaits a u201c ping u201d message from any tag step 606 if multiple tags 502 510 are in the proximity of target 504 each tag 502 510 powers up steps 603 603 a and awaits a u201c wakeup u201d message steps 605 605 a upon receiving the u201c wakeup u201d message each tag 502 510 independently responds steps 608 608 a after a random wait period with a u201c ping u201d message via rf signals 508 512 respectively shown in fig5 b the random wait period of each tag 502 510 is a random multiple of a u201c slot time u201d preferably but not limited to an integer from 0 3 the slot time is typically chosen to be greater than the round trip communication time from a tag and back of the.