Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate reducing feedback required to be transmitted on a reverse link channel in response to a forward link data transmission for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems. In a per group rate control MIMO system, a codeword can be linked to more than one layer. Codewords are mixed among antennas in the MIMO systems based upon a symmetric permutation of antennas groups. Further, codewords are transmitted in permuted form so that receivers can reduce feedback to a base channel quality indicator (CQI) and a differential CQI. Additionally, spatial diversity is increased for each codeword improving the robustness of the system against inaccurate CQI reports.