In a wireless communication system, a compact control signaling scheme includes signaling a selected retransmission mode and codeword identifier for a codeword retransmission when one of a plurality of codewords being transmitted over two codeword pipes to a receiver fails the transmission and when the transmitter switches from a higher order channel rank to a lower order channel rank, either by including one or more additional signaling bits in the control signal to identify the retransmitted codeword, or by re-using existing control signal information in a way that can be recognized by the receiver to identify the retransmitted codeword. With the compact control signal, the receiver is able to determine which codeword is being retransmitted and to determine the corresponding time-frequency resource allocation for the retransmitted codeword.