A method of transmitting physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH) symbols in a downlink subframe to a user equipment, the method comprising: channel coding 2 bits information to produce 32 bits information; modulating said 32 bits by a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation to produce 16 PCFICH symbols; mapping the 16 PCFICH symbols to four resource element groups (REGs) in a first OFDM symbol of the downlink subframe; and transmitting the mapped 16 PCFICH symbols, wherein the four resource element groups comprises a first resource element group including first four resource elements, a second resource element group including second four resource elements, a third resource element group including third four resource elements and a fourth resource element group including fourth four resource elements, wherein each two of the first resource element group, the second resource element group, the third resource element group and the fourth resource element group have a distance of an integer multiple of N SC RB /2 in a frequency domain, wherein first resource elements from the first four resource elements, the second four resource elements, the third four resource elements and the fourth four resource elements have positions given by: K 0, K 0 + ⌊ N RB DL / 2 ⌋ ∗ N SC RB / 2, K 0 + ⌊ 2 N RB DL / 2 ⌋ ∗ N SC RB / 2, and K 0 + ⌊ 3 N RB DL / 2 ⌋ ∗ N SC RB / 2, respectively, wherein 'N SC RB ' indicates a number of resource elements per resource block in the frequency domain, N RB DL is the number of resource blocks in downlink, and wherein K 0 = (N SC RB /2). (N ID cell mod2 N RB DL), N ID cell being a physical layer cell identifier. channel coding 2 bits information to produce 32 bits information; modulating said 32 bits by a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation to produce 16 PCFICH symbols; mapping the 16 PCFICH symbols to four resource element groups (REGs) in a first OFDM symbol of the downlink subframe; and transmitting the mapped 16 PCFICH symbols, wherein the four resource element groups comprises a first resource element group including first four resource elements, a second resource element group including second four resource elements, a third resource element group including third four resource elements and a fourth resource element group including fourth four resource elements, wherein each two of the first resource element group, the second resource element group, the third resource element group and the fourth resource element group have a distance of an integer multiple of N SC RB /2 in a frequency domain, wherein first resource elements from the first four resource elements, the second four resource elements, the third four resource elements and the fourth four resource elements have positions given by: K 0, K 0 + ⌊ N RB DL / 2 ⌋ ∗ N SC RB / 2, K 0 + ⌊ 2 N RB DL / 2 ⌋ ∗ N SC RB / 2, and K 0 + ⌊ 3 N RB DL / 2 ⌋ ∗ N SC RB / 2, respectively, wherein 'N SC RB ' indicates a number of resource elements per resource block in the frequency domain, N RB DL is the number of resource blocks in downlink, and wherein K 0 = (N SC RB /2). (N ID cell mod2 N RB DL), N ID cell being a physical layer cell identifier. wherein 'N SC RB ' indicates a number of resource elements per resource block in the frequency domain, N RB DL is the number of resource blocks in downlink, and wherein K 0 = (N SC RB /2). (N ID cell mod2 N RB DL), N ID cell being a physical layer cell identifier.