Efficient control and data multiplexing in communication systems

1. A method comprising:

configuring one or more short transmission time interval (sTTI) regions over a normal TTI region in a system bandwidth by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless network, wherein the sTTI regions are shared by the UE and one or more other UEs in the wireless network, and wherein each UE includes a self-contained control information sPDCCH occupying a control information region;

detecting a cover signal, wherein the cover signal indicates one or more resource elements (REs) in the sPDCCH control information region that can be used for data transmission; and

obtaining data transmission from the REs in the SPDCCH control information region based on the detected cover signal.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cover signal is a dedicated signal such that the SPDCCH control information for the UE includes resources by one or more SPDCCH for the one or more other UEs in the wireless network.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cover signal is a common signal, and wherein the common signal comprises information of radio resource usage for all sPDCCHs.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cover signal is encoded in a downlink control information (DCI) intended for the UE, and wherein the cover signal indicates control channel elements (CCEs) of PDCCHs taken by other UEs in the wireless network.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the cover signal is a bitmap of all starting CCE positions for different DCIs of other UEs, and wherein each bit of the cover signal bitmap indicates whether the corresponding CCE can be used as data transmission.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the wireless network is a 20 MHz long term evolve (LTE) system; and wherein the cover signal in the DCI is a 27-bit bitmap each corresponding to a level-1 aggregation.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cover signal indicates one or more CCE REs to be excluded for data transmission.

8. A method comprising:

configuring one or more short transmission time interval (sTTI) regions over a normal TTI region in a system bandwidth by a base station in a wireless network, wherein the sTTI regions are shared by one or more user equipments (UEs) in the wireless network, and wherein one or more sPDCCHs occupying a control information region is configured for each corresponding UE;

encoding a cover signal, wherein the cover signal indicates one or more resource elements (REs) in the sPDCCH control information region that can be used for data transmission; and

transmitting data information using the REs in the SPDCCH control information region in accordance to the cover signal.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the cover signal is a dedicated signal such that the SPDCCH control information for a first UE includes resources by one or more SPDCCH for one or more other UEs in the wireless network.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the cover signal is a common signal, and wherein the common signal comprises information of radio resource usage for all sPDCCHs.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the cover signal is encoded in a downlink control information (DCI) intended for a first UE, and wherein the cover signal indicates control channel elements (CCEs) of PDCCHs taken by other UEs in the wireless network.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the cover signal for a first UE is a bitmap of all starting CCE positions for different DCIs of other UEs, and wherein each bit of the cover signal bitmap indicates whether the corresponding CCE can be used as data transmission.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the wireless network is a 20 MHz long term evolve (LTE) system; and wherein the cover signal in the DCI is a 27-bit bitmap each corresponding to a level-1 aggregation.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the cover signal indicates one or more CCE REs to be excluded for data transmission.

15. A user equipment (UE), comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) transceiver that transmits and receives radio signals in a wireless communication network;

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to

configure one or more short TTI (sTTI) regions over a normal TTI region in a system bandwidth in a wireless network, wherein the sTTI regions are shared by the UE and one or more other UEs in the wireless network, and wherein each UE includes a self-contained control information sPDCCH occupying a control information region,

detect a cover signal, wherein the cover signal indicates one or more resource elements (REs) in the sPDCCH control information region that can be used for data transmission, and

obtain data transmission from the REs in the SPDCCH control information region based on the detected cover signal.

16. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the cover signal is a dedicated signal such that the SPDCCH control information for the UE includes resources by one or more SPDCCH for the one or more other UEs in the wireless network.

17. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the cover signal is a common signal, and wherein the common signal comprises information of radio resource usage for all sPDCCHs.

18. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the cover signal is encoded in a downlink control information (DCI) intended for the UE, and wherein the cover signal indicates control channel elements (CCEs) of PDCCHs taken by other UEs in the wireless network.

19. The UE of claim 18 , wherein the cover signal is a bitmap of all starting CCE positions for different DCIs of other UEs, and wherein each bit of the cover signal bitmap indicates whether the corresponding CCE can be used as data transmission.

20. The UE of claim 19 , wherein the wireless network is a 20 MHz long term evolve (LTE) system; and wherein the cover signal in the DCI is a 27-bit bitmap each corresponding to a level-1 aggregation.

21. The UE of claim 15 , wherein the cover signal indicates one or more CCE REs to be excluded for data transmission.