A method of decoding a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) is presented. An indication of a resource element (RE) configuration allocated for transmission of CSI-RSs by a first cell is received from a second cell. The method includes at least one of using the indication of the RE configuration to decode a first CSI-RS received from the first cell, and using the indication of the RE configuration to mute one or more REs within a data channel transmission received from a third cell. The first cell, second cell and third cell may be associated within a CSI-RS group. In some cases, at least two of the first cell, the second cell, and the third cell are mutually interfering cells. The indication of the RE configuration may include a plurality of logical indices having incremental values, the plurality of logical indices identifying REs used to transmit CSI-RS.