1. A method for determining a successive interference cancellation (SIC) ordering for a plurality of codewords, the method comprising: for each ordering of a plurality of SIC orderings of the codewords, mapping an effective channel quality associated with each codeword to a Packet Error Rate (PER) value associated with the each codeword, wherein said mapping is based on a position of the each codeword in the each ordering; and selecting, using decoder circuitry, one ordering from the plurality of SIC orderings for decoding the codewords using SIC, wherein said selecting is based on a performance objective computed from the PER value associated with the each codeword.