Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate reducing rank (e.g., of a user device) as a number of transmissions there from increases. Such rank step-down can improve interference resistance and facilitate maintaining code rate despite transmission propagation. Additionally, rank step-down information can be encoded along with CQI information to generate a 5-bit CQI signal that can facilitate updating a user's rank upon each CQI transmission (e.g., approximately every 5 ms). The described systems and/or methods can be employed in a single code word (SCW) wireless communication environment with a hybrid automatic request (HARQ) protocol.