Recent Advances in 3GPP Rel-12 Standardization related to D2D and Public Safety Communications

The goal of this paper is to present advances on recent 3GPP standardization activities related to Device-to-Device (D2D) and public safety. The paper provides a clear 3GPP state of the art, including when the 3GPP work on D2D and public safety communications started. Finally, it presents important conclusions with respect to further 3GPP work on this topic.