Various methods and devices are provided to address the need for reducing interference in heterogeneous wireless networks. In one apparatus, a network node (500) that includes a transceiver (502) and a processing unit (501) is provided. The processing unit is configured to transmit, via the transceiver, downlink signaling at a primary power spectral density (PSD) level and to also transmit, via the transceiver, a group of control channel elements (CCEs) on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) at a reduced PSD level, the reduced PSD level being less than the primary PSD level.