Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A user equipment (UE) may transmit an indication to a network entity that the UE is capable of decoding Reed-Solomon codes and that the UE is capable of performing near maximal likelihood demodulation. The network entity may transmit a message indicating that a Reed-Solomon code is applied to one or more scheduled signals based at least in part on the indication. The network entity may apply Reed-Solomon coding to a signal of the one or more scheduled signals based at least in part on the message. The UE may apply near maximal likelihood demodulation and Reed-Solomon decoding to a received signal of the one or more scheduled signals based at least in part on the message.