A wireless network includes a base station which can serve terminals directly, or via multi-hop transmission paths via relay stations. The base station transmits a downlink sub-frame which includes a first set of frame control information and a second set of frame control information. The second set of frame control information occupies a different position within the downlink sub-frame compared to the first set of frame control information. A relay station is able to transmit a downlink sub-frame to a terminal, or another relay station, while still being able to receive a set of frame control at a different time during the downlink sub-frame. The invention is especially useful in a wireless network in which the downlink transmissions of a base station and a relay station are synchronized to one another and where the downlink transmissions of a base station and relay station occupy the same, or similar, frequency bearer.