Short Control Channel Elements (SCCE) to Short Resource Element Groups (SREG) mapping for Short Physical Downlink Control Channel (SPDCCH) is provided. A User Equipment (UE) receives a communication from a base station; determines a mapping between one or more SCCE and corresponding SREG; and processes the communication based on the mapping. A base station determines a mapping between one or more SCCE and corresponding SREG for a communication to a UE and transmits a communication to the UE based on the mapping. In this way, the localized and distributed SCCE to SREG mapping for CRS-based SPDCCH is defined. Also, the SCCE to SREG mapping for 2 and 3 OFDM symbols DMRS-based SPDCCH is defined. For DMRS-based SPDCCH, a distributed configuration at SCCE level is defined. This may improve latency and can improve the average throughput of a communications system. Radio resource efficiency could be positively impacted by latency reductions.