Aspects of the disclosure relate to wireless communication systems configured to provide techniques for strategically placing a sounding reference signal (SRS) within a slot to improve the decoding timeline. Aspects of the disclosure further relate to wireless communication systems configured to optimize the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) search space within a slot to improve the decoding timeline. Features may also include placing the SRS near the end of the slot, such as after the uplink user data traffic and the corresponding uplink demodulation reference signal (DMRS). In addition, features may also include identifying the PDCCH search space within the slot based on at least a slot index of the slot. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.