Method for transmitting downlink control channel in a mobile communications system and a method for mapping the control channel to physical resource using block interleaver in a mobile communications system

1. A method for transmitting a control channel in a mobile communication system, the method comprising:

modulating information bits to generate a plurality of modulation symbols according to a predetermined modulation scheme;

interleaving the plurality of modulation symbols using a block interleaver for each of a plurality of modulation symbol groups, wherein each of the plurality of modulation symbol groups includes at least one modulation symbol set comprised of a plurality of continuous modulation symbols of the plurality of modulation symbols;

mapping the plurality of modulation symbol groups to resource elements allocated for transmitting at least one physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in a subframe; and

transmitting the at least one PDCCH,

wherein the interleaving comprises:

inputting the plurality of modulation symbol groups row by row to the block interleaver;

performing inter-column permutation for the plurality of modulation symbol groups based on a predetermined permutation pattern; and

outputting the plurality of modulation symbol groups column by column from the block interleaver, and

wherein the plurality of modulation symbol groups are cyclically shifted using a cell identifier.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a size of the block interleaver is determined according to a number of the plurality of modulation symbol groups transmitted in the subframe.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a number of rows of the block interleaver is determined based on a predetermined number of columns of the block interleaver and the number of the plurality of modulation symbol groups transmitted in the subframe.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of modulation symbol groups is mapped to one of a plurality of resource element groups, each of the plurality of resource element groups having a plurality of resource elements, wherein a number of the plurality of resource elements in each of the plurality of resource element groups corresponds to a number of the plurality of modulation symbols in corresponding one of the plurality of modulation symbol groups.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the number of the plurality of modulation symbols in each of the plurality of modulation symbol groups and the number of the plurality of resource elements in each of the plurality of resource element groups are determined according to a number of transmission antennas or spatial multiplexing rate.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of modulation symbol groups is mapped to a plurality of resource elements allocated for signals excluding at least one of a reference signal, a PHICH (Physical control format indicator channel) signal, and a PCFICH (Physical control format indicator channel) signal.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of modulation symbol groups is mapped according to a time-first mapping scheme.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising at least one of:

scrambling the information bits for the PDCCH with cell-specific scrambling sequence prior to the modulating;

mapping the plurality of modulation symbols to a number of layers equal to or less than a number of transmission antennas of the mobile communication system; and

precoding the plurality of modulation symbols per the layer.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the PDCCH is transmitted using one or more continuous Control Channel Elements (CCEs), wherein each of the Control Channel Elements includes at least one of the plurality of modulation symbols.

10. An apparatus for transmitting a control channel in a mobile communication system, the apparatus comprising:

a modulation module configured to modulate information bits to generate a plurality of modulation symbols according to a predetermined modulation scheme;

a block interleaver configured to perform interleaving the plurality of modulation symbols for each of a plurality of modulation symbol groups, wherein each of the plurality of modulation symbol groups includes at least one modulation symbol set comprised of a plurality of continuous modulation symbols of the plurality of modulation symbols;

a resource element mapper configured to map the plurality of modulation symbol groups to resource elements allocated for transmitting at least one Physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) signal in a subframe; and

a transmission module configured to transmit the at least one PDCCH signal,

wherein the plurality of modulation symbol groups are inputted row by row to the block interleaver;

the block interleaver performs inter-column permutation for the plurality of modulation symbol groups based on a predetermined permutation pattern; and

the plurality of modulation symbol groups are outputted column by column from the block interleaver, and

wherein the plurality of modulation symbol groups are cyclically shifted using a cell identifier.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein a size of the block interleaver is determined according to a number of the plurality of modulation symbol groups transmitted in the subframe.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein a number of rows of the block interleaver is determined based on a predetermined number of columns of the block interleaver and the number of the plurality of modulation symbol groups transmitted in the subframe.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein each of the plurality of modulation symbol groups is mapped to one of a plurality of resource element groups, each of the plurality of resource element groups having a plurality of resource elements, wherein a number of the plurality of resource elements in each of the plurality of resource element groups corresponds to a number of the plurality of modulation symbols in corresponding one of the plurality of modulation symbol groups.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the number of the plurality of modulation symbols in each of the plurality of modulation symbol groups and the number of the plurality of resource elements in each of the plurality of resource element groups are determined according to a number of transmission antennas or spatial multiplexing rate.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein each of the plurality of modulation symbol groups is mapped to a plurality of resource elements allocated for signals excluding at least one of a reference signal, a PHICH (Physical control format indicator channel) signal, and a PCFICH (Physical control format indicator channel) signal.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein each of the plurality of modulation symbol groups is mapped according to a time-first mapping scheme.

17. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the apparatus further comprises at least one of:

a scrambling module configured to perform scrambling the information bits for the PDCCH with cell-specific scrambling sequence prior to the modulating;

a layer mapper configured to map the plurality of modulation symbols to a number of layers equal to or less than a number of transmission antennas of the mobile communication system; and

a precoder configured to precode the plurality of modulation symbols per the layer.

18. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the PDCCH is transmitted using one or more continuous Control Channel Elements (CCEs), wherein each of the Control Channel Elements includes at least one of the plurality of modulation symbols.