Techniques for transmitting data in a relay communication network are described. In an aspect, stations in the relay network may be grouped into multiple depths, and stations at each depth may send the same transmission in each time interval. Packets may be transmitted in a pipelined manner in the relay network. Transmissions of a packet may be sent by stations at progressively higher depth in successive time intervals. A station may perform auto-configuration, attempt to decode transmissions from stations at different depths, and determine its depth based on decoding results. In another aspect, stations at each depth may transmit the same synchronization signal, and stations at different depths may transmit different synchronization signals. In one design, the synchronization signals for different depths may be different pilots, which may be generated with different scrambling codes or different orthogonal codes or may be multiplexed in frequency and/or time.