Inter-user equipment discovery method, apparatus, and system

A discovery method comprising:

• receiving, by a first proximity-based service entity, a discovery request message sent by first user equipment, wherein the discovery request message comprises initial location information of the first user equipment;
• receiving a match report message sent by second user equipment, wherein the match report message comprises a discovery message that is broadcast by the first user equipment, that is obtained by the second user equipment, and that comprises location offset information of the first user equipment, wherein both the first user equipment and the second user equipment belong to the first proximity-based service entity;
• and
• sending the initial location information to the second user equipment, so that the second user equipment determines a location of the first user equipment according to the initial location information and the location offset information;
• or
• obtaining positioning information according to the initial location information and the match report message;
• and
• sending the positioning information to the second user equipment, wherein the positioning information is used to indicate a location of the first user equipment.

A user equipment comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to:
• send a discovery request message to a first proximity-based service entity, wherein the discovery request message comprises initial location information of the user equipment;
• receive a discovery response message sent by the first proximity-based service entity, wherein the discovery response message comprises a first code word of the user equipment;
• obtain location offset information of the user equipment, and generate a discovery message according to the location offset information and the first code word, wherein the location offset information is an offset between a current location and an initial location of the user equipment;
• and
• broadcast the discovery message, wherein the discovery message is used by a second user equipment to determine a location of the user equipment according to the initial location information and the location offset information after obtaining the initial location information and the location offset information.