On the number of directions determined by a pair of functions over a prime field

A three-dimensional analogue of the classical direction problem is proposed and an asymptotically sharp bound for the number of directions determined by a non-planar set in AG(3,p), p prime, is proved. Using the terminology of permutation polynomials the main result states that if there are more than pairs with the property that f(x)+ag(x)+bx is a permutation polynomial, then there exist elements c,d,e∈Fp with the property that f(x)=cg(x)+dx+e.