Multiple relays are different distances from their respective donor access nodes. The donor and relay path selected for a user's traffic is selected based on the priority associated with that user and a ratio of a channel quality indicator and the distance of the donor-relay link. Traffic associated with a higher priority user is routed via a path with a good channel quality indicator to distance ratio whereas traffic for other, lower QoS profile, users does not take channel quality or relay-to-donor distance into account.