Power control in cellular communication is a technique used to adjust the power level of a transmitted signal to maintain communication quality while minimizing interference and conserving energy. The general concept involves dynamically adjusting the transmit power of both the base station and the mobile devices (User Equipment, UE) to ensure that the received signal is strong enough for reliable communication without being so strong that it causes unnecessary interference to others or wastes power.
In cellular networks, power control is crucial for:
Maintaining Signal Quality: Ensuring that the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) is within an optimal range for successful communication.
Managing Interference: Reducing the chance of signals from different users interfering with each other, especially in environments where multiple devices communicate simultaneously.
Energy Efficiency: Lowering the power consumption of mobile devices to extend battery life and reduce the overall energy footprint of the network.
The process generally involves feedback loops where the receiver communicates back to the transmitter about the quality of the received signal, leading to adjustments in transmit power to maintain the desired communication quality. (NOTE : There is a certain types of power control which does not use feedback loop, but power adjustment with feedback loop is more dominant method)