Co-existence muting gaps can be included in an LTE protocol over unlicensed spectrum to enable a more efficient sharing with other wireless technologies, including wireless local area networks (WLANs). For example, an LTE protocol can be altered to include muting gaps that align with a WLAN beacon. In another example, a WLAN access point (AP) can create an information element (IE) that describes muting gaps available to WLAN stations (STAs) such that STAs can remain in a low power state until a muting gap is available. In yet another example, a cell tower and WLAN can be configured such that WLAN beacons occur when the cell tower is not transmitting during selected portions of LTE frames.