Enhanced control signaling for backhaul link

1. A method comprising:

composing downlink control information having a format configured to support a presence of a plurality of transport blocks in a single subframe, wherein the downlink control information comprises, for the plurality of transport blocks, a common resource allocation field, a common modulation/coding scheme field, and a single cyclic redundancy check field, and wherein the downlink control information further comprises transport block specific fields comprising a resource/modulation coding scheme offset value for each transport block for enabling a relay node to determine those resources among the total granted resources that are allocated to each transport block based on the common resource allocation field and the resource/modulation coding scheme offset value, and enabling the relay node to determine the modulation/coding scheme allocated to each transport block based on the common modulation/coding scheme field and the resource/modulation coding scheme offset value; and

transmitting the composed downlink control information to the relay node over a wireless link that comprises a backhaul link from the relay node.

2. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the downlink control information further comprises a flag bits field to indicate the number of transport blocks included in a grant.

3. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the resource allocation of the downlink control information comprises a common resource grants field comprising a bitmap to indicate physical resource blocks allocated to the relay node.

4. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the modulation/coding scheme field comprises a baseline modulation/coding scheme field to indicate a modulation level and a coding scheme selected for the relay node in the subframe.

5. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the transport block specific fields comprise hybrid automatic repeat request information for each transport block.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a number of transport blocks supported by the downlink control information is set by higher layer signaling to the relay node to one of a maximum number during a period of time or a specific, exact number per period of time.

7. The method of claim 6 , and further comprising, for a case where one relay physical downlink control channel per each transport block is transmitted to the relay node, receiving in uplink signaling from the relay node an indication of whether the relay physical downlink control channel was received by the relay node or was not received by the relay node.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the indication that the relay physical downlink control channel was received by the relay node is sent in conjunction with a relay node physical uplink shared channel acknowledge or not acknowledge indication.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory including computer program code, where the memory and computer program code are configured, with the processor, to cause the apparatus to perform at least:

composing downlink control information having a format configured to support a presence of a plurality of transport blocks in a single subframe, wherein the downlink control information comprises, for the plurality of transport blocks, a common resource allocation field, a common modulation/coding scheme field, and a single cyclic redundancy check field, and wherein the downlink control information further comprises transport block specific fields comprising a resource/modulation coding scheme offset value for each transport block for enabling a relay node to determine those resources among the total granted resources that are allocated to each transport block based on the common resource allocation field and the resource/modulation coding scheme offset value, and enabling the relay node to determine the modulation/coding scheme allocated to each transport block based on the common modulation/coding scheme field and the resource/modulation coding scheme offset value; and

transmitting the composed downlink control information to the relay node over a wireless link that comprises a backhaul link from the relay node.

10. The apparatus as in claim 9 , wherein the downlink control information further comprises a flag bits field to indicate the number of transport blocks included in a grant.

11. The apparatus as in claim 9 , wherein the resource allocation of the downlink control information comprises a common resource grants field comprising a bitmap to indicate physical resource blocks allocated to the relay node.

12. The apparatus as in claim 9 , wherein the modulation/coding scheme field comprises a baseline modulation/coding scheme field to indicate a modulation level and a coding scheme selected for the relay node in the subframe.

13. The apparatus as in claim 9 , wherein the transport block specific fields comprise hybrid automatic repeat request information for each transport block.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein a number of transport blocks supported by the downlink control information is set by higher layer signaling to the relay node to one of a maximum number during a period of time or a specific, exact number per period of time.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , and further comprising, for a case where one relay physical downlink control channel per each transport block is transmitted to the relay node, receiving in uplink signaling from the relay node an indication of whether the relay physical downlink control channel was received by the relay node or was not received by the relay node.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the indication that the relay physical downlink control channel was received by the relay node is sent in conjunction with a relay node physical uplink shared channel acknowledge or not acknowledge indication.

17. A method comprising:

receiving at a relay node downlink control information having a format configured to support a presence of a plurality of transport blocks in a single subframe, wherein the downlink control information comprises, for the plurality of transport blocks, a common resource allocation field, a common modulation/coding scheme field, and a single cyclic redundancy check field, and wherein the downlink control information further comprises transport block specific fields comprising a resource/modulation coding scheme offset value for each transport block for enabling a relay node to determine those resources among the total granted resources that are allocated to each transport block based on the common resource allocation field and the resource/modulation coding scheme offset value, and enabling the relay node to determine the modulation/coding scheme allocated to each transport block based on the common modulation/coding scheme field and the resource/modulation coding scheme offset value; and

interpreting at the relay node the received downlink control information for use in transmitting at least user equipment data to a network access node over a backhaul wireless link.