A device, comprising: a transceiver coupled to a base station in a wireless communication network; and a processing device coupled to the transceiver, the processing device being configured to: control the transceiver to transmit to the base station in the wireless communication network a monitoring capability of the device, the monitoring capability being indicated from multiple capability sets, and each capability set comprising at least one at least one (X,Y) pattern in a time slot in a wireless downlink control channel of the wireless communication network in which the time slot comprises multiple spans, X comprises a minimum time separation of symbols of two spans of the time slot and Y comprises a maximum number of consecutive symbols for each span of the time slot, and control the transceiver to receive downlink control information based on a capability set selected by the base station in the wireless communication network to send downlink control information to the device, wherein controlling the transceiver to receive downlink control information further comprises controlling the transceiver to receive an explicit indication of which capability set has been selected by the base station in the wireless communication network to send downlink control information to the device; and wherein the multiple capability sets comprise predetermined capability sets shared by the device and the base station in the wireless communication network prior to the device transmitting the monitoring capability of the device to the base station in the wireless communication network. a transceiver coupled to a base station in a wireless communication network; and a processing device coupled to the transceiver, the processing device being configured to: control the transceiver to transmit to the base station in the wireless communication network a monitoring capability of the device, the monitoring capability being indicated from multiple capability sets, and each capability set comprising at least one at least one (X,Y) pattern in a time slot in a wireless downlink control channel of the wireless communication network in which the time slot comprises multiple spans, X comprises a minimum time separation of symbols of two spans of the time slot and Y comprises a maximum number of consecutive symbols for each span of the time slot, and control the transceiver to receive downlink control information based on a capability set selected by the base station in the wireless communication network to send downlink control information to the device, control the transceiver to transmit to the base station in the wireless communication network a monitoring capability of the device, the monitoring capability being indicated from multiple capability sets, and each capability set comprising at least one at least one (X,Y) pattern in a time slot in a wireless downlink control channel of the wireless communication network in which the time slot comprises multiple spans, X comprises a minimum time separation of symbols of two spans of the time slot and Y comprises a maximum number of consecutive symbols for each span of the time slot, and control the transceiver to receive downlink control information based on a capability set selected by the base station in the wireless communication network to send downlink control information to the device, wherein controlling the transceiver to receive downlink control information further comprises controlling the transceiver to receive an explicit indication of which capability set has been selected by the base station in the wireless communication network to send downlink control information to the device; and wherein the multiple capability sets comprise predetermined capability sets shared by the device and the base station in the wireless communication network prior to the device transmitting the monitoring capability of the device to the base station in the wireless communication network.