A UE may receive a first indication of a mapping of a plurality of layers to a c-CW and a p-CW from a network entity, indicating that the c-CW corresponds to at least one first layer of the plurality of layers and the p-CW corresponds to at least one second layer of the plurality of layers. The plurality of layers, the c-CW, and the p-CW may be associated with rate-splitting for MIMO communication. The UE may identify a first set of modulated symbols and a second set of modulated symbols that are mapped to the at least one first layer and the at least one second layer, respectively, based on the first indication. The UE may perform a decoding process for at least one of the c-CW or the p-CW based on at least one of the first set of modulated symbols or the second set of modulated symbols.