Aspects of the disclosure provide an apparatus that includes a receiving circuit and a processing circuit. The receiving circuit is configured to receive signals transmitted from a second apparatus to the apparatus and generate digital samples in response to the received signals. The signals have a plurality of resource elements. The processing circuit is configured to receive the digital samples, process the digital samples to generate symbols carried by the resource elements, detect control channel assistance information at a predetermined position of the resource elements and detect control information based on the detection of the control channel assistance information.