Uplink waveforms for operating long term evolution (LTE) in an unlicensed band (i.e., long term evolution-unlicensed (LTE-U) communication) are disclosed. Carrier aggregation (CA) and standalone (SA) are disclosed. LTE on the licensed channel may provide both control and data, LTE on the unlicensed channel may provide data. Managing variable transmission time interval (TTI) continuous transmission is disclosed for transmission over multiple subframes of an unlicensed carrier in LTE-U. Listen-before-talk (LBT) requirements of unlicensed carriers provide for additional channel occupancy constraints when scheduling resources for multiple UEs for variable TTI continuous uplink transmissions over multiple subframes. A joint control channel is disclosed that provides control information for all of the potentially available subframes to be scheduled for the uplink transmissions. In addition to management of the variable TTI continuous transmissions, adjustments to uplink signal parameters are also disclosed that address the constraints due to the LBT requirements of unlicensed carriers.