A length Nd≧2 of a vector is determined, the vector indicating a type of data non-associated control signaling (e.g., CQI+ACK, CQI+NACK, or CQI-only). The length Nd may be sent individually to UEs or broadcast in the cell. The network decodes a received message using a sub-code word from its memory having the determined length Nd. From the sub-code word the network determines what type of data non-associated control signaling is in the received message, and may jointly decode CQI and the ACK/NACK. Varying the length Nd achieves an error performance: longer Nd deteriorates CQI performance and increases ACK/NACK performance. The UE receives the indication of the length Nd, determines a channel quality vector and also a type-vector from its memory having the length Nd, and multiplexes and jointly encodes the vector of length Nd with the channel quality vector.