Technologies described herein provide mechanisms and formats to accomplish the beam switching. In one implementation, least one frame structure for both uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) beam switching is provided. The UL beam switching and refinement may rely on 5G Physical Random Access Channel (xPRACH) or 5G Sounding Reference Signal (xSRS). The DL beam switching and refinement may be done based on a beam refinement reference signal (BRRS). In some embodiments, to accomplish the both UL and DL beam switching and refinement in one subframe, the BRRS and xPRACH or xSRS may be located in one subframe.