A method for unicast communication over sidelink includes transmitting a direct communication request message from a source user equipment (UE) to one or more destination UEs. A direct communication response is received at the source UE from at least one of the one or more destination UEs, with the response including context information and a destination sidelink ID for the at least one UE. The context information of the at least one UE is stored in association with an ID pair comprising the destination sidelink ID and a source sidelink ID.