Narrowband reference signals in non-anchor resource blocks

A method for wireless communications by a base station (BS), comprising:

• determining whether to schedule one or more transmissions to a user equipment (UE);
• deciding that a starting subframe for a paging occasion (PO), a random access response (RAR) transmission, or a single cell point to multipoint (SC-PTM) transmission will occur or has occurred;
• determining to transmit a narrowband reference signal (NRS) in a non-anchor resource block (RB) based on at least one of:
• the decision,
• one or more narrowband transmission parameters, or
• the determination of whether to schedule the one or more transmissions to the UE;
• and
• transmitting the NRS in the non-anchor RB.

An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

• a processor configured to:
• decide that a starting subframe for a paging occasion (PO), a random access response (RAR) transmission, or a single cell point to multipoint (SC-PTM) transmission will occur or has occurred;
• determine occurrence of a narrowband reference signal (NRS) in a non-anchor resource block (RB) based on at least one of:
• the decision,
• one or more narrowband transmission parameters, or
• presence of one or more other transmissions in a same RB as the PO, the RAR transmission, or the SC-PTM transmission;
• and
• process the NRS;
• and
• a memory coupled with the processor.

An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

• a processor configured to:
• determine whether to schedule one or more transmissions to a user equipment (UE);
• decide that a starting subframe for a paging occasion (PO), a random access response (RAR) transmission, or a single cell point to multipoint (SC-PTM) transmission will occur or has occurred;
• determine to transmit a narrowband reference signal (NRS) in a non-anchor resource block (RB) based on at least one of:
• the decision,
• one or more narrowband transmission parameters, or
• the determination of whether to schedule the one or more transmissions to the UE;
• and
• transmit the NRS in the non-anchor RB;
• and
• a memory coupled with the processor.