Patent US 9,253,701

Method and apparatus are provided for offloading data from a cellular network via a secondary network. The offloaded data may be transported over a connection existing independently from the cellular network, such as a direct device-to-device (D2D) or direct mobile communications (DMC) link. The connection may be established between a first peer mobile device and a benefactor peer mobile device, and the benefactor peer mobile device may relay the data to/from a backhaul network via the secondary network. The benefactor peer mobile device may receive compensation for offloading the traffic, and may compete with one or more candidate benefactor devices for the task of offloading the data. The offloaded data may be uplink data originating from the beneficiary peer mobile, or downlink data destined for the beneficiary peer mobile.