A relay node in a wireless telecommunications system is provided. The relay node includes a processor configured to aggregate a plurality of acknowledgement/negative-acknowledgement messages (ACK/NACKs) when an access node sends multiple transmissions of data to the relay node before the next opportunity for the relay node to transmit corresponding ACK/NACKs for the data transmissions to the access node, the processor further configured to send the aggregated ACK/NACKs to the access node in a single subframe.
