Methods and nodes in a wireless communication network

A method in a transmit device, comprising:

• the transmit device jointly encoding two pieces of transmission burst information in a first Downlink Control Information (DCI), to obtain encoded transmission burst information, the two pieces of transmission burst information comprising an end subframe configuration and whether a current subframe is an end subframe;
• the transmit device transmitting the first DCI comprising the encoded transmission burst information with a first DCI format to a receive device;
• and
• the transmit device transmitting a second DCI comprising a second DCI format for Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) scheduling, the first DCI format having a same number of bits as the second DCI format.

A receive device, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions;
• a processor in communication with the computer readable medium, wherein the processor executes the instructions to:
• receive a first Downlink Control Information (DCI) comprising encoded transmission burst information with a first DCI format, wherein the encoded transmission burst information is obtained by jointly encoding two pieces of transmission burst information in the first DCI, and the two pieces of transmission burst information comprise an end subframe configuration and whether a current subframe is an end subframe;
• determine that the received first DCI comprises transmission burst information;
• and derive transmission burst information from the first DCI;
• and
• receive a second DCI comprising a second DCI format for Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) scheduling, wherein the first DCI format has a same number of bits as the second DCI format.

A method in a receive device comprising:

• the receive device receiving a first Downlink Control Information (DCI) comprising encoded transmission burst information with a first DCI format, the encoded transmission burst information being obtained by jointly encoding two pieces of transmission burst information in the first DCI, and the two pieces of transmission burst information comprising an end subframe configuration and whether a current subframe is an end subframe;
• the receive device determining that the received first DCI comprises transmission burst information;
• the receive device deriving transmission burst information from the received first DCI;
• and
• the receive device receiving a second DCI comprising a second DCI format for Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) scheduling, wherein the first DCI format has a same number of bits as the second DCI format.