A method for mapping an enhanced physical downlink control channel 'ePDCCH' to physical resource blocks in a radio frame, comprising: mapping modulated symbols in the ePDCCH to at least one control channel element; mapping the at least one control channel element to at least one of: resource elements located in a plurality of distributed physical resource blocks in a subframe of the radio frame, wherein each resource block is separated by at least one additional resource block in the subframe, and wherein each resource block is from a distributed resource block group that is assigned for distributed resource mapping; and resource elements distributed in a single resource block in the subframe, wherein the control channel element is mapped to be distributed in frequency and time relative to other mapped resource elements in the single resource block, wherein the single resource block is from a localized resource block group that is assigned for localized resource mapping, wherein the resource blocks of the localized resource block group are contiguous in the frequency domain on the subframe; applying the mapping to control data to form an ePDCCH configured to be communicated from an enhanced Node B 'eNB' to a user equipment 'UE'; and adjusting the ratio of the localized resource block group and the distributed resource block group through RRC signaling for long term adjustment. mapping modulated symbols in the ePDCCH to at least one control channel element; mapping the at least one control channel element to at least one of: resource elements located in a plurality of distributed physical resource blocks in a subframe of the radio frame, wherein each resource block is separated by at least one additional resource block in the subframe, and wherein each resource block is from a distributed resource block group that is assigned for distributed resource mapping; and resource elements distributed in a single resource block in the subframe, wherein the control channel element is mapped to be distributed in frequency and time relative to other mapped resource elements in the single resource block, wherein the single resource block is from a localized resource block group that is assigned for localized resource mapping, wherein the resource blocks of the localized resource block group are contiguous in the frequency domain on the subframe; resource elements located in a plurality of distributed physical resource blocks in a subframe of the radio frame, wherein each resource block is separated by at least one additional resource block in the subframe, and wherein each resource block is from a distributed resource block group that is assigned for distributed resource mapping; and resource elements distributed in a single resource block in the subframe, wherein the control channel element is mapped to be distributed in frequency and time relative to other mapped resource elements in the single resource block, wherein the single resource block is from a localized resource block group that is assigned for localized resource mapping, wherein the resource blocks of the localized resource block group are contiguous in the frequency domain on the subframe; applying the mapping to control data to form an ePDCCH configured to be communicated from an enhanced Node B 'eNB' to a user equipment 'UE'; and adjusting the ratio of the localized resource block group and the distributed resource block group through RRC signaling for long term adjustment.