Processing relaxation for aperiodic channel state information (CSI) reference signal (CSI-RS) is discussed for networks that include full dimension multiple input, multiple output (FD-MIMO) operations. A user equipment (UE) operating in such a system monitors for the presence of aperiodic CSI-RS. When such aperiodic CSI-RS are detected, the UE may provide process relaxation in CSI reporting by transmitting aperiodic CSI reporting according to an uplink shared channel limitation, or by relaxing the processing of the aperiodic CSI reporting transmitted by the UE, or a combination of both.