Various aspects related to techniques for harmonization between common reference signal (CRS) and demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) based transmission modes (TMs) in unlicensed spectrum are described. In one aspect, a downlink/uplink (DL/UL) subframe configuration may be signaled for each subframe. Information provided by the DL/UL subframe configuration may indicate whether the respective downlink subframe is a single-frequency network (MBSFN) subframe (associated with DM-RS-based TM) or a non-MBSFN subframe (associated with CRS-based TM). In another aspect, periodic as well as aperiodic channel state information (CSI) reporting requests may be supported. In yet another aspect, discontinued reception (DRX) wake ups for unlicensed carriers may be explicitly or implicitly indicated to a user equipment (UE) via a carrier in a licensed spectrum.