A method of a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system is provided. The method comprises receiving, from a base station (BS), a synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel block (SS/PBCH block) over a downlink channel of an unlicensed band; identifying a frequency location selected from a set of synchronization raster entries for receiving the SS/PBCH block, wherein the frequency location is aligned with a center resource element (RE) of the SS/PBCH block; determining a first RE in a first lowest frequency domain location of the SS/PBCH block based on the identified frequency location; and determining a second RE in a second lowest frequency domain location of a control resource set #0 (CORESET #0) that includes a fixed frequency offset between the first RE of the SS/PBCH block and the second RE of the CORESET #0.