A repeater mediates traffic between a network transceiver and a user transceiver in a wireless communication system. The repeater comprises a network unit that maintains a network link with the network transceiver, a user unit that maintains a user link with the user transceiver, a two-way communication pathway between the network unit and the user unit adapted to communicate signals between the network transceiver and the user transceiver in autonomous repeater hops between the network transceiver and the network unit, between the user transceiver and the user unit, and between the network unit and the user unit including downlink transmission from the network unit to the user unit and uplink transmission from the user unit to the network unit, and a detection unit coupled to the network unit and the user unit adapted to detect frame timing of downlink and uplink transmissions respectively by detecting a preamble sequence of downlink and/or uplink transmissions.