Techniques are described for wireless communication. A first method includes inserting channel or interference estimation modulation symbols into a sequence of data modulation symbols; performing a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) on a group of modulation symbols in the sequence of data modulation symbols, the group of modulation symbols including at least one of the channel or interference estimation modulation symbols; and generating a single-carrier frequency domain modulated (SC-FDM) symbol stream based at least in part on an output of the DFT. A second method includes performing an IDFT on a tone-demapped output of a DFT for each of at least one SC-FDM symbol stream, to recover a plurality of data modulation symbols and channel or interference estimation modulation symbols for each of the at least one SC-FDM symbol stream; estimating interference based at least in part on the channel or interference estimation modulation symbols; and decoding the data modulation symbols based at least in part on the estimated interference.