Distributed multi-cell power control in transmit beamforming systems using intercell-interference plus noise estimates

We address the problem of distributed multi-cell power control in multi-user transmit beamforming systems. The transmit beamforming vectors are obtained by exploiting the multi-cell uplink-downlink duality, and for fixed beamformers, the downlink power is allocated so as to satisfy certain per user SINR constraints with minimal total power. The proposed scheme is based on measurement of real-time intercell-interference plus noise (I+N) at the users using an interference projection technique. At each base station (BS), locally available information and the intercell I+N reports from the users can be combined to implement improved distributed multi-cell power control. Simulation results are provided to assess the performance of the proposed technique.