Patent ID: 7733827

Claim:
A method of monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in a wireless communication system, carried in a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: acquiring, at the UE, a starting location of a search space in a control region of a subframe k, the control region of the subframe k comprising a set of contiguous control channel elements (CCEs) numbered from 0 to N CCE,k −1, where N CCE,k is a total number of CCEs in the control region of the subframe k, wherein the search space in the control region of the subframe k, is defined by a set of PDCCHs at an aggregation level in the control region of the subframe k, the aggregation level indicating an aggregation of contiguous CCEs in the control region of the subframe k, the aggregation level being one of plural possible aggregation levels in the control region of the subframe k, wherein the starting location corresponds to a CCE index and is defined by a multiple of the aggregation level in the control region of the subframe k; and monitoring, at the UE, the set of PDCCHs from the starting location in the search space of the aggregation level in the control region of the subframe k, wherein the search space in the control region of the subframe k includes a UE specific search space monitored by at least one UE in a cell, and a common search space monitored by all UEs in the cell, and wherein the starting location in the search space at the aggregation level in the control region of the subframe k includes at least one of a starting location of the UE specific search space that is determined in every subframe and that is obtained based on an identifier of the UE, and a starting location of the common search space that is fixed.