Sidelink discovery messages for beam training and onboarding of initiator user equipments to sidelink user equipment groups

A first user equipment (UE), comprising:

• a memory;
• at least one transceiver;
• and
• at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to:
• determine a resource configuration for beam training, the resource configuration comprising a first set of resources associated with a first number of transmission repetitions for transmission of sidelink discovery messages by the first UE on each of a first number of beams on a bandwidth associated with a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and a second set of resources associated with transmission opportunities for transmission of a second number of transmission repetitions of sidelink discovery response messages from one or more candidate UEs on one of a second number of beams available for transmission of the sidelink discovery response messages by the respective one or more candidate UEs, the first number of transmission repetitions corresponding to the second number of beams;
• transmit, via the at least one transceiver, the sidelink discovery messages on the first set of resources in accordance with the resource configuration;
• monitor the second set of resources for any sidelink discovery response messages from the one or more candidate UEs in accordance with the resource configuration;
• and
• receive, via the at least one transceiver, from a second UE based on the monitoring, a sidelink discovery response message on a beam that corresponds to one of the second number of beams and is paired with one of the first number of beams.