Patent ID: 8849203

Claim:
A method of providing peer to peer discovery for a plurality of mobiles on a communications network, the plurality of mobiles including at least a first mobile and a second mobile, the method comprising: detecting, at an access network, that the first and second mobiles are in proximity with respect to one another, the access network being included in the communications network and providing wireless coverage over one or more cells via one or more base stations included in the access network; generating a determination result at the access network after the detecting, the determination result indicating whether the first and second mobiles are capable of establishing a direct device to device (D2D) link with one another based on a signal reception quality of signals received at the first mobile from the second mobile and a signal reception quality of signals received at the second mobile from the first mobile; generating a D2D capability message at the access network based on the determination result, the D2D capability message indicating that the first and second mobiles are capable of establishing a D2D link with one another; sending the D2D capability message from the access network to a proximity server which stores discoverability preference information of the plurality of mobiles; sending a first discovery message from the proximity server to the first mobile if the discoverability preference information of the second mobile indicates that the second mobile is discoverable by the first mobile; and sending a second discovery message from the proximity server to the second mobile if the discoverability preference information of the first mobile indicates that the first mobile is discoverable by the second mobile.