A system and methods for estimating a noise power level in an uplink signal for a virtual MIMO system is disclosed. The system comprises a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) module configured to obtain a DMRS receive symbol from the uplink signal and determine a DMRS sequence for a first UE in the virtual MIMO system. An autocorrelation module is configured to calculate an average autocorrelation value for the subcarriers in the uplink signal. A cross-correlation module is configured to calculate first and second cross-correlation values of the uplink signal R
z (
l ) for values of
l selected such that the sum of the received power from the first UE and the second UE can be accurately estimated. A noise power level module is configured to determine the noise power level for the uplink signal using the average autocorrelation value and the first and second cross correlation values.