Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A user equipment (UE) may monitor a neighbor cell and report the result to a serving base station. Based on the report, the serving base station may identify an estimated discovery reference signal (DRS) transmission window of the neighbor cell. In some cases, the UE may estimate and report parameters of the neighbor DRS transmission window, and in other cases, the UE may make a measurement report and the base station may infer DRS transmission window parameters. The base station may then provide the UE with a DRS measurement timing configuration (DMTC) based on the estimated parameters of the neighbor cell so that the UE may monitor the neighbor cell and the serving cell in an efficient manner. For example, the UE may conserve battery life by refraining from monitoring DRS during periods when a DRS transmission is not likely.