An advanced wireless communication system, and a method for use at an advanced wireless communication system are disclosed that support direct communication to provide flexible resource pool sharing. The method comprises: measuring, at a first UE, utilization of at least one resource pool of a direct communication channel associated with a configured shared region; transmitting, by the first UE and to at least one second UE, sidelink control information (SCI) identifying a selected resource pool of the at least one resource pool; and transmitting, by the first UE and to the at least one second UE, data associated with the SCI in the selected resource pool.