In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, a method comprises broadcasting from a user equipment (UE) having means for device to device (D2D) communication a beacon comprising an OFDM beacon frame comprising a plurality of beacon fields; receiving at least one random access request from at least one neighbor device to trigger handshake signaling for establishment of a D2D connection; responding to one of the at least one random access request with an acknowledgement beacon including at least an identifier of the UE to confirm the D2D connection with the selected neighbor device; discovering available resources; and exchanging said resource information in the handshake signaling with the neighbor devices.