The described technology is generally directed towards operating a user equipment node as a scheduler user equipment (e.g., which can be a local manager of other nodes in a group). The scheduler user equipment receives a scheduling request for the scheduling of the resources for transmission of data by a transmitter user equipment, and based on the traffic type requested, schedules the transmitter user equipment and receiver user equipment(s) with scheduling data/allocated radio resources. The transmitter user equipment can directly transmit to the receiver user equipment(s) on the allocated radio resources, e.g., without further involvement of the scheduler user equipment/local manager. For cellular data, the scheduler user equipment can schedule the transmitter user equipment to transmit to the scheduler user equipment as a receiver node.