A first gateway receives, from a source user equipment, an uplink packet addressed to a target user equipment and identifies a pairing between the source user equipment and the target user equipment. The first gateway routes the received uplink packet to the target user equipment on a communication path that bypasses an Internet. A first mobility management entity (MME) receives, from a source user equipment, a first request to pair the source user equipment with a target user equipment and transmits a second request to a gateway to pair the source user equipment with the target user equipment. The first MME transmits messages to the source user equipment and the target user equipment including an identifier of the pairing received from the gateway in response to the second request.