Licensed-assisted user equipment cooperation in unlicensed sidelink

A user equipment (UE) device comprising:

• a wireless interface;
• a processor operatively coupled to the wireless interface;
• and
• a computer readable storage medium operatively coupled to the processor, the computer readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by the processor, the programming comprising instructions to:
• receive, via the wireless interface, a multicast signal from a wireless network over a first spectrum band, the multicast signal comprising downlink information targeted to a second UE, the multicast signal addressed to a cluster of UEs including the first UE and at least one other UE;
• responsive to receiving the multicast signal, perform a contention procedure for a sidelink transmission opportunity (TXOP) in a second spectrum band in accordance with group listen-before-talk (LBT) parameters configured for the cluster of UEs;
• and
• where the contention procedure has acquired a TXOP in the second spectrum band for the cluster, make, via the wireless interface, a sidelink transmission containing at least a portion of the downlink information to the second UE over the second spectrum band during the TXOP acquired for the cluster;
• wherein the first spectrum band does not overlap with the second spectrum band.