Patent ID: 8005039

Claim:
A method in a wireless communication network base station of transmitting downlink control information to a plurality of mobile terminals, said method comprising: transmitting control information and data traffic to the mobile terminals in repeating transmission intervals, each transmission interval having a control portion that is defined for transmitting control information to targeted ones of the mobile terminals and a data portion that is defined for transmitting data traffic to targeted ones of the mobile terminals; dynamically determining that the control portion has insufficient resources for transmitting control information to one or more of the mobile terminals by determining that an overall information-carrying capacity of the control portion is insufficient, in consideration of collective amounts of control information to be sent in the control portion and corresponding coding gains needed for reliable reception of that control information; and responsive to said determining, at least temporarily transmitting control information in the data portion, rather than in the control portion, for a selected one or more of the mobile terminals.