A narrowband apparatus determines a set of monitored resource blocks (RBs) on a subframe for monitoring for CRS from a base station monitors for the CRS from the base station on the subframe based on the set of monitored RBs. The base station determines a bandwidth for transmitting the CRS to a user equipment, wherein the bandwidth is less than a system bandwidth and transmits the CRS to the UE using the determined bandwidth, wherein the UE monitors for the CRS on a set of monitored RBs. The set of monitored RBs may include RBs allocated for a PDCCH search space, PDCCH and/or PDSCH transmissions and may further include RBs M subframes after and/or N subframes before the monitored RBs. The set of monitored RBs may include X RBs around a PDCCH search space and/or PDSCH.