Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method that includes receiving, by supporting user equipment UE, a pairing request message sent by a network side; and acquiring, by the supporting UE, a friend UE short-distance identifier list when self supporting capability information of the supporting UE indicates that the supporting UE supports a friend UE. The method also includes performing, by the supporting UE, identity authentication on the benefitted UE according to the friend UE short-distance identifier list and a short-distance identifier of a benefitted UE that is carried in the pairing request message. The method also includes performing, by the supporting UE, pairing processing with the benefitted UE, and sending a pairing response message to the network side, if the benefited UE has been authenticated.