Radio base station and user equipment and methods therein

A method in a radio base station for receiving uplink control information in time slots of a subframe over a radio channel from a user equipment, wherein the radio channel is configured to carry uplink control information, wherein the uplink control information is comprised in a block of bits, wherein the user equipment and radio base station are comprised in a radio communications network, and wherein the method comprises:

• receiving a sequence of complex valued modulation symbols,
• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) demodulating the sequence of complex valued modulation symbols,
• transforming, per Discrete Fourier Transform Spread (DFTS)-OFDM symbol, the OFDM demodulated sequence of complex valued modulation symbols by applying a matrix to that OFDM demodulated sequence, wherein the matrix comprises matrix elements that are cyclically shifted depending on at least one of a DFTS-OFDM symbol index and a slot index,
• block despreading the OFDM demodulated sequence of complex valued modulation symbols, as transformed, with a despreading sequence, and
• mapping the despread sequence of complex valued modulation symbols to a block of bits.

A user equipment for transmitting uplink control information in time slots of a subframe over a radio channel to a radio base station, wherein the radio channel is configured to carry uplink control information, wherein the uplink control information is comprised in a block of bits, and wherein the user equipment comprises

• a mapping circuit configured to map the block of bits to a sequence of complex valued modulation symbols,
• a block spreading circuit configured to block spread the sequence of complex valued modulation symbols across Discrete Fourier Transform Spread-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (DFTS-OFDM) symbols by applying a spreading sequence to the sequence of complex valued modulation symbols, to achieve a block spread sequence of complex valued modulation symbols,
• a transforming circuit configured to transform, per DFTS-OFDM symbol, the block-spread sequence of complex valued modulation symbols by applying a matrix to the block-spread sequence of complex valued modulation symbols, wherein the matrix comprises matrix elements that are cyclically shifted depending on at least one of a DFTS-OFDM symbol index and a slot index, and
• a transmitter configured to transmit the block spread sequence of complex valued modulation symbols, as transformed, over the radio channel to the radio base station.

A radio base station for receiving uplink control information in time slots of a subframe over a radio channel from a user equipment, wherein the radio channel is configured to carry uplink control information, wherein the uplink control information is comprised in a block of bits, and wherein the radio base station comprises:

• a receiver configured to receive a sequence of complex valued modulation symbols,
• an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) demodulating circuit configured to OFDM demodulate the sequence of complex valued modulation symbols,
• a transforming circuit configured to transform, per Discrete Fourier Transform Spread (DFTS)-OFDM symbol, the OFDM demodulated sequence of complex valued modulation symbols by applying a matrix to that OFDM demodulated sequence, wherein the matrix comprises matrix elements that are cyclically shifted depending on at least one of a DFTS-OFDM symbol index and a slot index,
• a block despreading circuit configured to block despread the OFDM demodulated sequence of complex valued modulation symbols, as transformed, with a despreading sequence, and
• a mapping circuit configured to map the despread sequence of complex valued modulation symbols to a block of bits.

A method in a terminal for transmitting uplink control information in a slot of a subframe over a channel to a base station in a wireless communication system, wherein the uplink control information is comprised in a code word, and wherein the method comprises:

• mapping the code word to modulation symbols;
• block spreading the modulation symbols across Discrete Fourier Transform Spread-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (DFTS-OFDM) symbols by repeating the modulation symbols for each DFTS-OFDM symbol and applying a block spreading sequence of weight factors to the repeated modulation symbols, to achieve a respective weighted copy of the modulation symbols for each DFTS-OFDM symbol;
• transforming, for each DFTS-OFDM symbol, the respective weighted copy of the modulation symbols by applying a matrix to the respective weighted copy of the modulation symbols, wherein the matrix comprises matrix elements that are cyclically shifted depending on at least one of a DFTS-OFDM symbol index and a slot index;
• and
• transmitting, on each DFTS-OFDM symbol, the respective weighted copy of the modulation symbols, as transformed, to the base station.