System and method to facilitate small cell uplink power control in a network environment

One or more non-transitory tangible media encoding logic that includes instructions for execution by a processor, wherein the execution causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

• calculating, by a small cell radio, one or more sets of candidate power control parameters using a first interference constraint for uplink user equipment (UE) transmissions for UE served by the small cell radio, wherein the first interference constraint is associated with a minimum cell edge Signal-to-Interference-Plus-Noise Ratio (SINR) value and a minimum cell interior SINR value for the UE served by the small cell radio;
• communicating the one or more sets of candidate power control parameters from the small cell radios to a central management entity;
• determining, at the central management entity, whether an average of a sum of an expected interference for UE associated with the small cell radio violates a second interference constraint for any of the one or more sets of candidate power control parameters;
• generating one or more messages for the small cell radio including one or more particular sets of power control parameters that provide for meeting the second interference constraint;
• and
• setting, by the small cell radio, uplink transmit power for each UE served by the small cell radio based, at least in part, on the one or more particular sets of power control parameters.

A system comprising:

• at least one memory element for storing data;
• and
• at least one processor for executing instructions associated with the data, wherein the executing causes the system to perform operations, comprising:
• calculating, by a small cell radio, one or more sets of candidate power control parameters using a first interference constraint for uplink user equipment (UE) transmissions for UE served by the small cell radio, wherein the first interference constraint is associated with a minimum cell edge Signal-to-Interference-Plus-Noise Ratio (SINR) value and a minimum cell interior SINR value for the UE served by the small cell radio;
• communicating the one or more sets of candidate power control parameters from the small cell radios to a central management entity;
• determining, at the central management entity, whether an average of a sum of an expected interference for UE associated with the small cell radio violates a second interference constraint for any of the one or more sets of candidate power control parameters;
• generating one or more messages for the small cell radio including one or more particular sets of power control parameters that provide for meeting the second interference constraint;
• and
• setting, by the small cell radio, uplink transmit power for each UE served by the small cell radio based, at least in part, on the one or more particular sets of power control parameters.