Within a wireless network, feedback information from user equipment (UE) to a control node (eNodeB) is necessary to support various functions. A UE receives an allocation from the eNodeB comprising a plurality of periodic transmission instances for a channel quality indicator (CQI) and a schedule comprising a plurality of periodic transmission instances for a rank indicator (RI), wherein the CQI comprises RI and other CQI fields. The UE then transmits an RI without transmitting the other CQI fields in a transmission instance allocated for both RI and other CQI fields.