Methods and devices are described herein for prioritizing a plurality of packets for potential transmission and in an iterative fashion: i) determining power requirements for control channel signalling associated with a highest priority packet not yet analyzed for resource assignment; and ii) assigning resources for said highest priority packet if sufficient power for control channel signalling is available and sufficient resources for said highest priority packet are available. A further method includes assigning a plurality of users to one of a plurality of signalling groups, wherein said plurality of users within said one of a plurality of groups use a first of a plurality of HARQ interlace offsets for their first respective HARQ transmissions.