A communication system is presented, which is capable of sending a transmission over an interface having at least two aggregated component carriers including a primary component carrier and at least one secondary component carrier, wherein the primary component carrier has a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) associated therewith and wherein the PDCCH is capable of signaling allocations for the primary component carrier and the at least one secondary component carrier. A method of operating a network element including sending to a user equipment a transmission indication indicative of the transmission in the PDCCH of the primary component carrier. A method of operating a user equipment includes monitoring downlink control signaling for a transmission indication indicative of a transmission to the user equipment only on the PDCCH of the primary component carrier.