Reference signals may not uniformly span over time and/or frequency on a resource unit. For example, reference signals may non-uniformly occupy symbols of a subframe. Alternatively, reference signals normally transmitted over certain tones of a subframe may have to be punctured to avoid collisions with a PSS and/or SSS transmitted over the same tones. Consequently, a UE may only be able to use a subset of reference signal tones for performing channel estimation. Accordingly, a method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided for improving channel estimation under a non-uniform signal pattern. The apparatus indicates to a UE to utilize a subset of reference signals to derive a channel estimate for demodulating data in a specific subframe, and transmits a plurality of subframes, the plurality of subframes including the reference signals and the specific subframe, the specific subframe including a PSS and/or SSS.