A method and apparatus reducing overhead usage associated with communications is provided. The method may comprise generating an acknowledgment (ACK) for a successfully received codeword from a group of codewords or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) for a codeword unsuccessfully received from the group of codewords, and populating a response information matrix with a plurality of response information elements, wherein the response information elements are determined as a function of the generated acknowledgement or negative acknowledgements.