Techniques and examples of tracking reference signal and framework thereof in mobile communications are described. A user equipment (UE) receives, from a base station of a network, a reference signal via a communication link between the UE and the base station. The reference signal contains resource configuration with respect to tracking reference signal (TRS) configuration. The UE also receives, from the base station, a TRS burst containing a plurality of TRS symbols with one or more components of the UE configured according to the TRS configuration. The UE processes the TRS burst to perform channel estimation, synchronization, time tracking, frequency tracking, or a combination thereof.