Systems, methods, and software can be used to process a control channel at a user agent (UA) within a wireless communication system. In some aspects, the method includes identifying one carrier as an anchor carrier and at least one other carrier as a non-anchor carrier; for each carrier: determining a location of a UA specific search space including one or more control channel candidates for the carrier based on a linear congruential random number; and attempting to decode each of the control channel candidates in the UA specific search space to identify at least one of an uplink or a downlink grant associated with the carrier.