Aspects of the subject disclosure can include, for example, associating a first logical codeword with HARQ identifier, wherein the first logical codeword is based on a first plurality of channel-encoded codewords of a first plurality of transport blocks. The first logical codeword is associated with multiple layers of a MIMO system to obtain a logical codeword mapping. In response to detecting an error in one of the channel-encoded codewords, a modified first logical codeword is generated based on the one channel-encoded codeword and mapped to the number of layers of the MIMO s system for transmission to the receiver for further processing associated with the HARQ identifier. Other embodiments are disclosed.