Patent ID: 8223854

Claim:
A method for transmitting uplink control signaling and uplink user data in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing communication system comprising: receiving one or more of user data non-associated control signaling and user data associated control signaling and wherein receiving the one or more of user data non-associated control signaling and user data associated control signaling comprises separately coding each control field of the plurality of control fields to produce a plurality of separately coded control fields, multiplexing the plurality of separately coded control fields to produce a single codeword and applying a separate repetition factor to each control field of the plurality of separately coded control fields to produce a plurality of separately coded control fields with redundancy; receiving user data; multiplexing the one or more of user data non-associated control signaling and user data associated control signaling into a user data stream by puncturing the one or more of user data non-associated control signaling and user data associated control signaling onto the user data stream to produce a data stream wherein the one or more of user data non-associated control signaling and user data associated control signaling and user data information are multiplexed and wherein the one or more of user data non-associated control signaling and user data associated control signaling comprises a plurality of control fields and comprising multiplexing the plurality of separately coded control fields with redundancy to produce a single codeword; and conveying the data stream to a radio access network via an air interface.