D2D wireless communication techniques may be used to offload data communications and perform peer-to-peer communications among mobile devices and networks. D2D communications between mobile devices (e.g., user equipment (UEs)) are generally designed to complement the use of centralized communications from a wireless base station (e.g., centralized station-to-mobile communications from an evolved NodeB (eNodeB) in a 3GPP Long Term Evolution/Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE/LTE-A) network). D2D communications can reuse spectrum in licensed communication bands and channels used by a centralized network. Complexity exists, however, when scheduling and coordinating the D2D communications with the centralized network and independently operating devices.
For example, with certain 3GPP LTE/LTE-A standards, a time-frequency zone (“D2D zone”) may be allocated by the eNodeB for D2D communications. Within the D2D zone, contention-based channel access techniques may be used to manage distributed device access to D2D communication resources. Contention-based channel access helps to minimize the scheduling and control overhead on the common interface used by the eNodeB and multiple D2D UEs. Some contention-based methods, such as Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA), are not efficient, however in terms of the contention overhead and power consumption due to packet collisions and channel monitoring.