A method of monitoring for a control channel, the method comprising: by a wireless communication device: determining whether a control channel pilot signal is present within at least a first symbol of a first group of control channel elements, CCEs, of a control resource set ; at least partly in response to determining that the control channel pilot signal is present within at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs, demodulating and decoding the at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs ; and in response to determining that the control channel pilot signal is not present within at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs, foregoing demodulation and decoding of the first group of CCEs ; characterized in that the determining whether the control channel pilot signal is present within at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs comprises: determining a respective signal strength metric for each of a plurality of groups of CCEs of the control resource set ; determining a maximum group threshold, T 2 , representing a predetermined percentage of a greatest signal strength metric of the respective signal strength metrics ; and determining that the control channel pilot signal is not present within at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs when the signal strength metric for at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs does not meet T 2 . determining whether a control channel pilot signal is present within at least a first symbol of a first group of control channel elements, CCEs, of a control resource set ; at least partly in response to determining that the control channel pilot signal is present within at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs, demodulating and decoding the at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs ; and in response to determining that the control channel pilot signal is not present within at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs, foregoing demodulation and decoding of the first group of CCEs ; characterized in that the determining whether the control channel pilot signal is present within at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs comprises: determining a respective signal strength metric for each of a plurality of groups of CCEs of the control resource set ; determining a maximum group threshold, T 2 , representing a predetermined percentage of a greatest signal strength metric of the respective signal strength metrics ; and determining that the control channel pilot signal is not present within at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs when the signal strength metric for at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs does not meet T 2 . determining a respective signal strength metric for each of a plurality of groups of CCEs of the control resource set ; determining a maximum group threshold, T 2 , representing a predetermined percentage of a greatest signal strength metric of the respective signal strength metrics ; and determining that the control channel pilot signal is not present within at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs when the signal strength metric for at least the first symbol of the first group of CCEs does not meet T 2 . <EOS>