Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A discontinuous reception (DRX) periodicity may be configured to enable monitoring of a reference signal (RS) for RLM procedures. For example, a transmitting device may configure a DRX periodicity for an RS, where the configured DRX periodicity may include a periodicity of discrete transmissions of the RS or a periodicity of a transmission window in which the RS is located. Accordingly, a receiving device may identify the DRX periodicity and monitor radio link quality using the RS based on the DRX periodicity. In some examples, the RS may be transmitted independent of control channel transmissions, and the transmitting device may configure one or more control resource sets for the RS.