A first base station of an access network exchanges with a first peer device and a network element of a core network to establish a peer-to-peer connection and associated first access network bearer for the first peer device. The first access network bearer is unbound to a core network bearer. The first base station receives a data packet from the first peer device over the first access network bearer, wherein the data packet is addressed to a second peer device. The first base station further forwards the data packet to the second base station for the second peer device.