Backhaul traffic reliability is improved in unlicensed spectrum bands by using cross-protocol channel sensing and reservation. Physical carrier sensing may be employed to scan channel quality of a plurality of carriers of an unlicensed spectrum band and select a carrier for use in a wireless backhaul communications link between a first base station and a second base station based on the scanned channel quality. The described features may further include the first base station transmitting a self-addressed reservation frame on the selected first carrier prior to transmission of backhaul data from the first base station to the second base station over the first carrier.