A base station and a UE may communicate using directional beams, such as a downlink directional beam (used to transmit downlink channels) and an uplink directional beam (used to transmit uplink channels), each beam carrying one or more data channels, control channels, and/or reference signals. According to one aspect, signaling for managing the uplink channels and downlink channels may be sent over a shared common beam. The shared common beam is distinct from the uplink directional beam and the downlink directional beam. In one example, a first shared common channel may serve to manage or update uplink data channels (on the uplink directional beam) and downlink data channels (on the downlink directional beam), while a second shared common channel may serve to manage or update uplink control channels (on the uplink directional beam) and downlink control channels (on the downlink directional beam).