A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for associating a user equipment (UE) with a relay in a wireless network are provided. The apparatus determines a relay backhaul link quality of a relay; determines a path loss from a UE to the relay; and compares the relay backhaul link quality to a direct link quality between the UE and a base station, and the path loss to a path loss threshold to determine whether to associate the UE with the relay.