Techniques for performing peer discovery to enable peer-to-peer (P2P) communication are disclosed. In an aspect, a proximity detection signal used for peer discovery may be generated based on one or more physical channels and/or signals used in a wireless network. In one design, a user equipment (UE) may generate a proximity detection signal occupying at least one resource block based on a SC-FDMA modulation technique. In another design, the UE may generate a proximity detection signal occupying at least one resource block based on an OFDMA modulation technique. The UE may generate SC-FDMA symbols or OFDMA symbols in different manners for different physical channels. In yet another design, the UE may generate a proximity detection signal including a primary synchronization signal and a secondary synchronization signal. For all designs, the UE may transmit the proximity detection signal to indicate its presence and to enable other UEs to detect the UE.