Aspects of the disclosure relate to wireless communications utilizing discontinuous reception (DRX). Disclosed methods and apparatus include providing a grant indicator in a transmission from a base station to a user equipment (UE), where indicator notifies the UE of a grant of data during a subsequent discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle in the at least one UE. Additionally, a tracking reference signal (TRS), which may be aperiodic (A-TRS), is transmitted prior to an on-duration time of the DRX cycle, where the TRS is usable by the UE for updating a tracking loop and also can be referenced by the indicator. In this manner, the combination of the grant indicator and the TRS affords a UE sufficient time for updating a UE tracking loop before the DRX cycle. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.