Patent ID: 7865204

Claim:
A method for transmitting control channel information to mobile stations, the method comprising the acts of: forming at a first base station in a wireless communication system a control channel message wrapped in a unified control channel, the unified control channel including an access type identifier that indicates a wireless communication system access type from among a plurality of wireless communication system access types available for the control channel message and including a message type identifier that indicates a type of message, corresponding to the wireless communication system access type, contained in the control channel message; and transmitting the control channel message wrapped in the unified control channel to a plurality of mobile stations in a single control channel of the first base station; wherein the unified control channel is common to the plurality of wireless communication system access types and is formed as a header of the control channel message, and wherein the control channel message comprises control channel information of the first base station and is formatted according to the indicated wireless communication system access type.