Exchanging a recommendation of a set of D2D rat types for a proximity-based service and searching for a binary code that identifies a proximity-based service on at least one D2D rat type in accordance with a D2D rat sequence

A method of operating a proximity services (ProSe) server, comprising:

• determining that a subscriber at a given location is equipped with reception capability on multiple device-to-device (D2D) radio access technology (RAT) types subscribes to a given proximity-based service;
• determining publisher D2D RAT capability statistics that characterize D2D RAT types used by a set of publishers to advertise the given proximity-based service in a location region associated with the given location;
• selecting at least one D2D RAT type based at least in part upon the publisher D2D RAT capability statistics;
• and
• transmitting, to the subscriber, a recommendation that the subscriber search for a publisher advertising the given proximity-based service over the selected at least one D2D RAT type,
• wherein the publisher D2D RAT capability statistics include current data related to one or more publishers that are currently advertising the given proximity-based service while inside the location region,
• wherein the set of publishers is expected to offer the given proximity-based service for less than a threshold period of time, and
• wherein the selecting excludes historical data related to at least one publisher that previously advertised the given proximity-based service while inside the location region as a selection factor based on the expectation.

A method of operating a user equipment (UE) equipped with transmission and/or reception capability on multiple device-to-device (D2D) radio access technology (RAT) types, comprising:

• registering, by the UE, with a proximity services (ProSe) server in association with a given proximity-based service;
• reporting a given location of the UE to the ProSe server;
• and
• receiving, from the ProSe server based on D2D RAT statistics that characterize D2D RAT types used or supported by a set of other UEs in a location region associated with the given location, a recommendation for the UE to exchange data for the given proximity-based service with one or more other UEs over at least one D2D RAT type,
• wherein a set of publishers is expected to offer the given proximity-based service in the location region for less than a threshold period of time, and
• wherein, based on the expectation, the recommendation is based on current data related to the set of other UEs without factoring historical data related to at least one subscriber to the given proximity-based service in the location region or at least one publisher of the given proximity-based service in the location region.

A method of operating a subscriber that subscribes to a given proximity-based service, comprising:

• obtaining a binary code that is used by a set of publishers to identify the given proximity-based service on multiple device-to-device (D2D) radio access technology (RAT) types that are supported by the subscriber;
• determining a D2D RAT sequence that defines at least a first set of D2D RAT types to be searched, the first set of D2D RAT types including less than all of the multiple D2D RAT types that are supported by the subscriber;
• and
• searching for the binary code on the first set of D2D RAT types in accordance with the D2D RAT sequence.