Channel coding and rate matching for lte control channels

A method for coding and rate matching a control channel for use in wireless communications, the method comprising:

• receiving an unencoded input block;
• convolutionally coding the unencoded input block using a rate 1/3 convolutional encoder, wherein an output stream of encoded bits is output from each encoder polynomial in the rate 1/3 convolutional encoder;
• interleaving each output stream of encoded bits using three sub-block interleavers, wherein each sub-block interleaver interleaves one output stream of encoded bits output by an associated encoder polynomial;
• storing the interleaved, encoded bits from the sub-block encoders into a circular buffer;
• rate matching the stored interleaved encoded bits with a number of bits that may be transmitted on an available physical channel resource, denoted as K bits, wherein repeated stored bits are read from the beginning of the circular buffer when the number of stored interleaved encoded bits is less than K, an wherein the first K bits are read from the circular buffer when the number of stored encoded bits is greater than K.