Methods and apparatus are described for a Relay Node (RN) that is transparent to User Equipments to transmit, together with a base station (Node B), Reference Signals (RS) to UEs, to receive RS from UEs, to perform transmissions of Transport Blocks (TBs) to the Node B or to UEs and receptions of TBs from the Node B or from UEs, where the transmissions of TBs from the RN are for retransmissions associated with a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARD) process for the same TBs, and enabling the Node B to obtain control information signaled from UEs while signaling from the RN interferes with that signaling of control information.