A method of operating a terminal in a radio access network, the method comprising: receiving (541, 587) a transmission of first and second data blocks over respective first and second multiple-input-multiple-output, MIMO, layers during a transmission time interval, TTI; generating (545, 589) respective first and second demodulated codewords corresponding to the transmission of the first and second data blocks; decoding (549, 593) the first and second demodulated codewords; and responsive to failure decoding the first demodulated codeword and success decoding the second demodulated codeword, transmitting (557, 601) a negative acknowledgement indicating failure receiving the first and second data blocks, wherein the TTI comprises a first TTI, the method further comprising: after transmitting (557, 601) the negative acknowledgement, receiving a retransmission of the first and second data blocks over the respective first and second MIMO layers during a second TTI; reducing interference of the retransmission by reducing a component of the retransmission corresponding to the successfully decoded second demodulated codeword, wherein the component of the retransmission corresponding to the successfully decoded second demodulated codeword is obtained by re-encoding, re-modulating, re-spreading/re-scrambling, and precoding of the successfully decoded second demodulated codeword; responsive to reducing the interference of the retransmission, generating a third demodulated codeword corresponding to the retransmission of the first data block; and decoding the third demodulated codeword by using a combination of the first demodulated codeword and the third demodulated codeword. receiving (541, 587) a transmission of first and second data blocks over respective first and second multiple-input-multiple-output, MIMO, layers during a transmission time interval, TTI; generating (545, 589) respective first and second demodulated codewords corresponding to the transmission of the first and second data blocks; decoding (549, 593) the first and second demodulated codewords; and responsive to failure decoding the first demodulated codeword and success decoding the second demodulated codeword, transmitting (557, 601) a negative acknowledgement indicating failure receiving the first and second data blocks, after transmitting (557, 601) the negative acknowledgement, receiving a retransmission of the first and second data blocks over the respective first and second MIMO layers during a second TTI; reducing interference of the retransmission by reducing a component of the retransmission corresponding to the successfully decoded second demodulated codeword, wherein the component of the retransmission corresponding to the successfully decoded second demodulated codeword is obtained by re-encoding, re-modulating, re-spreading/re-scrambling, and precoding of the successfully decoded second demodulated codeword; responsive to reducing the interference of the retransmission, generating a third demodulated codeword corresponding to the retransmission of the first data block; and decoding the third demodulated codeword by using a combination of the first demodulated codeword and the third demodulated codeword.