Rx ue(s) assisted channel access procedure for sidelink operation in unlicensed band

A method comprising:

• receiving, a reservation signal on a transmitting User Equipment (UE), transmitted by a receiving UE on an unlicensed channel;
• and
• decoding the reservation signal, by the transmitting UE, wherein the reservation signal was transmitted for the unlicensed channel to the transmitting UE, by the receiving UE, during at least a portion of a time period when the unlicensed channel is unoccupied;
• and
• wherein the receiving UE performed a Listen Before Talk sensing to identify the time period when the unlicensed channel was unoccupied.

A device comprising:

• a transceiver;
• and a
• processor configured to:
• determine, via the transceiver, that a corresponding transmitting User Equipment (UE) has a future reserved resource block;
• perform, via the transceiver, a Listen Before Talk (LBT) sensing to identify a time period when an unlicensed channel is unoccupied, and can be used by the corresponding device for the future reserved sidelink transmission;
• transmit a reservation signal for the unlicensed channel to the corresponding transmitting UE, during at least a portion of the time period when the unlicensed channel is unoccupied;
• and
• prior or at a reserved slot boundary of the future reserved resource block, switch, by the device, to a receiving mode.