System and method for sharing a control channel for carrier aggregation

A method for processing a control channel at a user agent (UA) in a multi-carrier communication system, comprising:

• receiving an activation signal specifying one or more carriers among a plurality of carriers;
• activating the one or more carriers based on the activation signal;
• for the one or more carriers:
• (i) identifying a number of control channel element (CCE) subset candidates to decode;
• and
• (ii) decoding downlink control information (DCI) in at least one of the identified CCE subset candidates in an attempt to identify a resource grant.

A user equipment (UE) for processing a control channel in a multi-carrier communication system, comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive an activation signal specifying one or more carriers among a plurality of carriers;
• and
• a processor, the processor configured to perform operations comprising:
• activating the one or more carriers based on the activation signal;
• for the one or more carriers:
• (i) identifying a number of control channel element (CCE) subset candidates to decode;
• and
• (ii) decoding downlink control information (DCI) in at least one of the identified CCE subset candidates in an attempt to identify a resource grant.