Uplink Fractional Power Control and Downlink Power Allocation for Cell-Free Networks

This letter proposes respective policies for uplink power control and downlink power allocation in cell-free wireless networks. Both policies rely only on large-scale quantities and are expressed in closed form, being therefore scalable. The uplink policy, which generalizes the fractional power control employed extensively in cellular networks, features a single parameter; by adjusting this parameter, the SIR distribution experienced by the users can be compressed or expanded, trading average performance for fairness. The downlink policy dualizes the uplink solution, featuring two parameters that again allow effecting a tradeoff between average performance and fairness.