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 (708, 808a-d, 1108, 1208, 1308) and a second control channel element (709, 809a-d, 1108, 1209, 1309), wherein: a location of the first control channel element is associated with a first index (710a, 810a-d, 1110, 1210, 1310), a second index is associated with the first index, an indicator of a first orthogonal resource (705a, 908) is associated with the first index, and an indicator of a second orthogonal resource is associated with the second index (710b, 811a-d, 1111, 1211, 1311), and the second control channel element is associated with the second orthogonal resource (705b, 909); 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; and the method being characterized in that it further comprises: assigning to the user equipment an offset from the first control channel element to the second control channel element comprised in the downlink message, wherein the downlink message is a physical downlink control channel message, and the offset is dynamically or semi-statically configured through downlink control signaling. 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 (708, 808a-d, 1108, 1208, 1308) and a second control channel element (709, 809a-d, 1108, 1209, 1309), wherein: a location of the first control channel element is associated with a first index (710a, 810a-d, 1110, 1210, 1310), a second index is associated with the first index, an indicator of a first orthogonal resource (705a, 908) is associated with the first index, and an indicator of a second orthogonal resource is associated with the second index (710b, 811a-d, 1111, 1211, 1311), and the second control channel element is associated with the second orthogonal resource (705b, 909); a location of the first control channel element is associated with a first index (710a, 810a-d, 1110, 1210, 1310), a second index is associated with the first index, an indicator of a first orthogonal resource (705a, 908) is associated with the first index, and an indicator of a second orthogonal resource is associated with the second index (710b, 811a-d, 1111, 1211, 1311), and the second control channel element is associated with the second orthogonal resource (705b, 909); 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; and the method being characterized in that it further comprises: assigning to the user equipment an offset from the first control channel element to the second control channel element comprised in the downlink message, wherein the downlink message is a physical downlink control channel message, and the offset is dynamically or semi-statically configured through downlink control signaling.