Embodiments of a Generation Node-B (gNB), User Equipment (UE) and methods for communication are generally described herein. The gNB may map data symbols to resource elements (REs) of virtual resource blocks (VRBs). The gNB may interleave the data symbols, on a per-VRB basis, to spatial layers of a multi-layer multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission. The data symbols may be interleaved based on different interleave patterns of VRB indexes for the spatial layers. The gNB may map the interleaved data symbols of the spatial layers to REs of physical resource blocks (PRBs) for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission.