A 5G or pre-5G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate beyond a 4G communication system such as long-term evolution (LTE) is provided, including a method for performing device to device (D2D) discovery by a user equipment (UE), which is out of the coverage area serviced by a base station, in a wireless communication network. The method includes the operations of receiving pre-configuration information for transmitting a discovery message, and transmitting the discovery message in a transmission resource determined on the basis of the pre-configuration information, wherein the pre-configuration information includes a list of pools for transmitting the discovery message, and the transmission resource is determined from the list of pools.