An access network element provides user equipment access to a network comprising a centralised authentication server. The access network element comprises an authentication processor which authenticates the access network element at the centralised authentication server. In addition, the access network element authenticates a first user equipment in response to the authentication of the access network element by the centralised authentication server. A communication processor supports a peer-to-peer first communication session for the first user equipment and a peer-to-peer second communication session with a second access network element which supports a peer-to-peer communication session with a second user equipment. Peer-to-peer communication between the first and second user equipments is supported by exchanging data between the first communication session and the second communication session. The invention may allow benefits of de-centralised peer-to-peer communications to be combined with existing centralised network architectures such as the Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem, IMS.