Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques and apparatus for startup and recovery of a radio link between a relay node and a donor base station. According to certain aspects, a relay node may perform a random access procedure utilizing a random access channel (RACH) to transition between Uu interface operations and Un interface operations. According to certain aspects, the relay node may perform radio link failure (RLF) recovery utilizing RACH procedures for a Un interface. The procedures described herein, according to certain aspects, may utilize a dedicated relay RACH resource and a Relay Physical Downlink Control Channel (R-PDCCH).