A communication system incorporates a multiplexing scheme so that a base node that schedules user equipment (UE) can determine whether an ACK/NACK and/or a service request (SR) has been received when both uplink (UL) transmissions are simultaneously scheduled. Significant complexity reduction, better link efficiency, and higher multiplexing capability since the base node can interpret selective use by the UE of either the ACK/NACK or SR UL channel. Such interpretation can be extended to when multiple downlink (DL) transmission modes can be used, specifically DL single input multiple output (SIMO), DL multiple input multiple output (MIMO) with rank 1 transmission, and DL MIMO with rank 2 transmission. Based upon knowledge of the scheduling and DL transmission mode, the base node does not have to blind decode a number of possibilities due to the mapping of possible responses from the UE. In addition, the multiplexing scheme is applicable to FDD and TDD.