Systems and methods for user equipment cooperation

A first user equipment (UE) comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first UE to:
• receive a packet comprising a packet destination identifier (ID) that identifies a destination of the packet, wherein the packet destination ID is a higher layer ID that is configurable, wherein the higher layer ID is multiplexed with a portion of the packet that is higher than a media access control (MAC) layer, and wherein the higher layer ID uniquely identifies a second UE as a final destination of the packet or uniquely identifies a base station as the destination of the packet;
• and
• forward the packet to the second UE or the base station based on the packet destination ID.

A source device comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the source device to:
• transmit, to a user equipment (UE), a packet comprising a packet destination identifier (ID) that identifies a destination of the packet,
• wherein the packet destination ID is a higher layer ID that is configurable, wherein the higher layer ID is multiplexed with a portion of the packet that is higher than a media access control (MAC) layer, wherein the higher layer ID uniquely identifies a target device as a final destination of the packet, and wherein the packet is forwarded to the target device by the UE based on the packet destination ID.