The present disclosure relates generally to a system and method for a multi-layer multi-hop wireless system. In one example, the method includes dividing information to be sent from a source node to a destination node via a relay node into at least first and second segments. A signal containing the first and second segments is generated for transmission from the source node, where the first and second segments are encoded differently within the signal. The signal containing the first and second segments is sent from the source node to the relay node and the destination node. Only the first segment is recovered from the signal by the destination node, while the first and second segments are recovered by the relay node. The second segment is sent by the relay node to the destination node, which combines the first and second segments to reconstruct the information.