Proximity Services (ProSe), first introduced in Release 12 of the 3GPP specifications, is a D2D (Device-to-Device) technology that allows LTE devices to detect each other and to communicate directly.
In comparison to existing D2D and proximity networking technologies, ProSe offers a number of distinct benefits including better scalability, manageability, privacy, security and battery-efficiency. Current efforts to commercialize ProSe are being spearheaded by the public safety and critical communications sector. However, although initial investments in ProSe-enabled devices will be driven by these two sectors, there also exists a much larger opportunity in the commercial arena.
