System and method for searching for a control channel

A method, comprising:

• at a base station of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network:
• determining a number of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) information that is to be transmitted to a station connected to the base station;
• generating a transmission including the number of PDCCH information, each PDCCH information having a respective downlink control information (DCI) mapped thereover;
• determining whether a length of information bits of the DCI is less than a length of information bits of the PDCCH information;
• and
• when the length of information bits of the DCI is less than the length of information bits of the PDCCH information, padding the information bits of the DCI with one of a first type of padding or a second type of padding, wherein the first or second type of padding is selected based on the number, wherein the first type of padding indicates that the station may terminate a search for a further PDCCH.

A station, comprising:

• a transceiver configured to establish a connection to a base station of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network and receive a transmission from the base station, the transmission including at least one physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) information, each PDCCH information having a respective downlink control information (DCI) mapped thereover;
• and
• a processor coupled to a memory, wherein the processor is configured to:
• detect one of the PDCCH information in the transmission;
• determine whether a length of information bits of the DCI for the detected one of the PDCCH information is less than a length of the information bits of the PDCCH information;
• and
• terminate a search for a further one of the PDCCH information when the length of information bits of the DCI is less than the length of information bits of the control channel information and a first type of padding is used for the mapping of the DCI over the PDCCH information.