Enhancements to mobility reference signals for radio link monitoring in a beam-based system

An access node of a wireless communications system, comprising:

• transceiver circuitry;
• and
• processing circuitry operatively associated with the transceiver circuitry and configured to:
• transmit, using the transceiver circuitry, in a downlink signal having a series of subframes, a beam-formed reference signal in each of a plurality of subframes, wherein the beam-formed reference signals are transmitted in fewer than all of the subframes of the downlink signal, and wherein the beam-formed reference signals include a first subset and an at least partly differing second subset, the first subset including beam-formed reference signals corresponding to a first frequency or first localized range of frequencies, and the second subset including beam-formed reference signals corresponding to a second frequency or second localized range of frequencies, the second frequency or second localized range of frequencies being spaced apart from and differing from the first frequency or first localized range of frequencies;
• and
• configure a user equipment (UE) to perform mobility management measurements using at least the first subset of the beam-formed reference signals and to perform radio link monitoring (RLM) using at least the second subset of the beam-formed reference signals, wherein performing RLM comprises monitoring the downlink signal for radio link failure (RLF).