Aspects of the disclosure relate to a user equipment (UE) for establishing a sidelink communication channel and receive mapped channel state information-reference signals (CSI-RS) over a plurality of PSSCH resource blocks. The mapped CSI-RS may be interlaced with resource elements in at least a portion of the plurality of PSSCH resource blocks. The CSI-RS received over the plurality of PSSCH blocks is then processed to determine a channel quality of the sidelink channel from the portion of the plurality of PSSCH resource blocks including the mapped CSI-RS.