A method for operating a user equipment (UE) comprises receiving configuration information about a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state indication, the configuration information including a set of TCI states and information for configuring a medium for the TCI state indication; receiving, based on the configuration information, the TCI state indication via the configured medium, wherein the TCI state indication indicates M>1 TCI states; determining M beams based on the M TCI states, applying at least one of the M beams for a reception of a downlink (DL) data channel, and applying a control beam determined based on the M beams for a reception of a DL control channel.