Transmission Of Information In A Wireless Communication System

A method at a network element in a wireless communication system, comprising:

• transmitting, to a user equipment, a downlink message using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, wherein the downlink message comprises a first control channel element, and,
• wherein, a location of the first control channel element is associated with a first index, and,
• wherein, a second index is associated with the first index, and,
• wherein, an indicator of a first orthogonal resource is associated with the first index, and an indicator of a second orthogonal resource is associated with the second index;
• receiving an uplink transmission from the user equipment;
• despreading the received uplink transmission into a first modulated message using the first orthogonal resource, and, despreading the received uplink transmission into a second modulated message using the second orthogonal resource.

A network element in a wireless communication system, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a communications subsystem;
• wherein the processor and the communications subsystem cooperate to:
• transmit, to a user equipment, a downlink message using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, wherein the downlink message comprises a first control channel element, and,
• wherein, a location of the first control channel element is associated with a first index, and,
• wherein, a second index is associated with the first index, and,
• wherein, an indicator of a first orthogonal resource is associated with the first index, and an indicator of a second orthogonal resource is associated with the second index;
• receive an uplink transmission from the user equipment;
• despread the received uplink transmission into a first modulated message using the first orthogonal resource, and, despread the received uplink transmission into a second modulated message using the second orthogonal resource.