Methods for efficient use of unlicensed spectrum

A wireless device comprising a transmit node for performing a transmission in a frequency spectrum requiring Listen-Before-Talk, LBT, wherein the transmit node comprises:

• at least one transmitter;
• and
• processing circuitry associated with the at least one transmitter, the processing circuitry configured to cause the transmit node to:
• perform an LBT procedure for a plurality of channels each comprising a group of contiguous Physical Resource Blocks, PRBs, within a transmit bandwidth of the transmit node to determine that a subset of the plurality of channels is available;
• and
• transmit a transmission in the subset of the plurality of channels determined to be available, wherein transmitting the transmission comprises one of:
• transmitting the transmission concurrently on the subset of the plurality of channels independent of whether the subset of the plurality of channels is adjacent;
• and
• merging at least two adjacent channels among the subset of the plurality of channels into a merged channel and transmitting the transmission currently on the merged channel and at least one of the subset of the plurality of channels non-adjacent to the merged channel.

A method performed by a receiver to receive a transmission in a frequency spectrum requiring Listen-Before-Talk, LBT, comprising:

• receiving, from a transmit node, a transmission in a subset of a plurality of channels each comprising a group of contiguous Physical Resource Blocks, PRBs, within a transmit bandwidth of the transmit node and determined to be available for the transmission, wherein receiving the transmission comprises one of:
• receiving the transmission concurrently on the subset of the plurality of channels independent of whether the subset of the plurality of channels is adjacent;
• receiving the transmission on a merged channel comprising at least two adjacent channels among the subset of the plurality of channels;
• and
• receiving the transmission currently on the merged channel comprising the at least two adjacent channels among the subset of the plurality of channels and at least one of the subset of the plurality of channels non-adjacent to the merged channel.