Used DL Coverage Class (2 bit field)
An RLC/MAC control message on the EC-PACCH is sent with one or several blind physical layer transmissions, depending on the assigned DL Coverage Class for the mobile station that the message is being sent to. The USED_DL_COVERAGE_CLASS IE is included in order to inform other mobile stations about the DL Coverage Class, and thus the number of blind physical layer transmissions, that are being used when transmitting the current RLC/MAC message on the EC-PACCH. Other mobile stations, with a lower CC, can thus avoid monitoring the corresponding downlink resources while remaining transmissions of the message, if any, are being performed.

If the field EC_Reduced_PDCH_Allocation is set to 1 in the EC SYSTEM INFORMATION TYPE 2 message, (see 3GPP TS 44.018) and if the parameter Used DL Coverage Class is other than CC1, the mapping used for the DL control blocks (EC-PACCH/D) onto physical channels shall be as specified in 3GPP TS 45.002.

The USED_DL_COVERAGE_CLASS field is encoded according to the following table:

bit

2 1

0 0 DL Coverage Class = CC1

0 1 DL Coverage Class = CC2

1 0 DL Coverage Class = CC3

1 1 DL Coverage Class = CC4