A method for communication in a wireless telecommunication system, the method comprising: designating, by a network element, a first set of time-frequency resources for transmitting a first set of downlink control channels for a plurality of user equipment, UEs, wherein the first set of time-frequency resources is known to the plurality of UEs, and wherein the first set of time-frequency resources varies from a first time interval to a second time interval, wherein the first set of time-frequency resources comprise at least one of consecutive or distributed resources designated for an enhanced physical downlink control channel, E-PDCCH, mapping, by the network element, a first region of the E-PDCCH to the first set of time-frequency resources; and transmitting, by the network element, the E-PDCCH in a subframe comprising a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, and a physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH, wherein the E-PDCCH is transmitted simultaneously with the PDSCH in a frequency-division multiplexing manner such that the E-PDCCH occupies different resource blocks, RBs, than the PDSCH; further comprising mapping a second region of the E-PDCCH to the first set of time-frequency resources, wherein DCIs within the first and the second regions are cross-interleaved and distributed over the first set of time-frequency resources, the first and second regions defining a common search space and a UE-specific search space, respectively, wherein the E-PDCCH occupies a pair of non-adjacent RBs spanning two slots of the subframe, each RB in the pair allocating resource elements (REs) shared by the common search space and the UE-specific search space. designating, by a network element, a first set of time-frequency resources for transmitting a first set of downlink control channels for a plurality of user equipment, UEs, wherein the first set of time-frequency resources is known to the plurality of UEs, and wherein the first set of time-frequency resources varies from a first time interval to a second time interval, wherein the first set of time-frequency resources comprise at least one of consecutive or distributed resources designated for an enhanced physical downlink control channel, E-PDCCH, mapping, by the network element, a first region of the E-PDCCH to the first set of time-frequency resources; and transmitting, by the network element, the E-PDCCH in a subframe comprising a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, and a physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH, wherein the E-PDCCH is transmitted simultaneously with the PDSCH in a frequency-division multiplexing manner such that the E-PDCCH occupies different resource blocks, RBs, than the PDSCH; further comprising mapping a second region of the E-PDCCH to the first set of time-frequency resources, wherein DCIs within the first and the second regions are cross-interleaved and distributed over the first set of time-frequency resources, the first and second regions defining a common search space and a UE-specific search space, respectively, wherein the E-PDCCH occupies a pair of non-adjacent RBs spanning two slots of the subframe, each RB in the pair allocating resource elements (REs) shared by the common search space and the UE-specific search space.