Patent ID: 7715349

Claim:
A method at a transmitter in a wireless communications system having a control channel operable to communicate a fixed-length Happy (H) indicator, a fixed-length Retransmission Sequence Number (RSN), and a fixed-length Transport Format Indicator (TFI), the method being for combining the H indicator, the RSN and the TFI into a combined fixed-length multi-bit codeword for transmission in a frame on a control channel, the method comprising: mapping the fixed number of bits of the Happy indicator, the fixed number of bits of the RSN, and the fixed number of bits of the TFI into a combined fixed-length multi-bit codeword such that the decimal equivalents of the combined codewords formed from all allowed combinations of the Happy indicator, the RSN and TFI lie within a continuous range of values, the number of allowed combinations of the Happy indicator, the RSN, and TEI being less than the maximum number of different values in decimal that the combined fixed-length multi-bit codeword could possibly have.