A method of encoding a bit sequence over a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) having Downlink Control Information (DCI) including: determining DCI bits to provide a DCI bit sequence; performing a CRC calculation on the DCI bit sequence to provide a CRC parity bit sequence; scrambling the CRC parity bit sequence to provide a scrambled CRC bit sequence; if the DCI format is LTE-A, further scrambling the DCI together with the attached scrambled CRC bit sequence to provide a LTE-A scrambled bit sequence; channel coding either the DCI attached scrambled CRC bit sequence or LTE-A scrambled bit sequence to provide a channel coded bit sequence; modulating the channel coded bit sequence to provide a modulated symbol sequence; layer mapping the modulated symbol sequence to one or more antennas associated with a transmitter to provide one or more layers having a symbol sequence; and precoding the layered symbol sequences.