A method in a user equipment of determining the radio link quality, the method comprising: acquiring signaling configuring the user equipment to monitor for a first type of control channel, the first type of control channel demodulated based on a first type of reference signal; receiving a second type of reference signal in at least one or more Resource block Set, the second type of reference signal distinct from the first type of reference signal; estimating a synchronization condition based on the received second type of reference signal and at least one attribute of the control channel; sending an output from a current layer to a higher layer based on the estimated synchronization condition; and performing, based on the output received at the higher layer, at least one of triggering a radio link monitoring, declaring a radio link failure, or declaring a radio link recovery; wherein the control channel is an enhanced control channel and wherein the at least one attribute of the control channel comprises at least one of: a. a reference enhanced control channel element size, b. a reference aggregation level for aggregation of enhanced control channel elements, c. at least one of a localized and a distributed transmission of the enhanced control channel elements, d. a reference transmission scheme associated with the control channel or an enhanced control channel element, e. a signal-to-noise ratio gain parameter associated with transmission of the control channel, f. one of a localized and distributed transmission of the enhanced control channel, g. a reference search space associated with the control channel, and h a reference enhanced control channel bandwidth which is smaller than the bandwidth of a carrier on which it is monitored. acquiring signaling configuring the user equipment to monitor for a first type of control channel, the first type of control channel demodulated based on a first type of reference signal; receiving a second type of reference signal in at least one or more Resource block Set, the second type of reference signal distinct from the first type of reference signal; estimating a synchronization condition based on the received second type of reference signal and at least one attribute of the control channel; sending an output from a current layer to a higher layer based on the estimated synchronization condition; and performing, based on the output received at the higher layer, at least one of triggering a radio link monitoring, declaring a radio link failure, or declaring a radio link recovery; wherein the control channel is an enhanced control channel and wherein the at least one attribute of the control channel comprises at least one of: a. a reference enhanced control channel element size, b. a reference aggregation level for aggregation of enhanced control channel elements, c. at least one of a localized and a distributed transmission of the enhanced control channel elements, d. a reference transmission scheme associated with the control channel or an enhanced control channel element, e. a signal-to-noise ratio gain parameter associated with transmission of the control channel, f. one of a localized and distributed transmission of the enhanced control channel, g. a reference search space associated with the control channel, and h a reference enhanced control channel bandwidth which is smaller than the bandwidth of a carrier on which it is monitored. a. a reference enhanced control channel element size, b. a reference aggregation level for aggregation of enhanced control channel elements, c. at least one of a localized and a distributed transmission of the enhanced control channel elements, d. a reference transmission scheme associated with the control channel or an enhanced control channel element, e. a signal-to-noise ratio gain parameter associated with transmission of the control channel, f. one of a localized and distributed transmission of the enhanced control channel, g. a reference search space associated with the control channel, and h a reference enhanced control channel bandwidth which is smaller than the bandwidth of a carrier on which it is monitored.