Systems and methods for generating a demodulation reference signal for use by user equipment configured with multiple antennas based on a rank of an antenna or an antenna port are disclosed. A rank for a user equipment device is determined indicating the number of spatial layers or antenna ports in use, and the value of the rank is used to generate a cyclic shift offset and a cyclic shift, that can then be used to generate a demodulation reference signal to be used in timeslots within each spatial layer of an uplink transmission. Orthogonal cover codes may be used in conjunction with a determined cyclic shift to generate a demodulation reference signal.