Methods and systems for providing joint power control (PC) and scheduling in a wireless network are provided. In one example, a method includes generating a near-optimal power pattern for PC and scheduling in accordance with long term channel statistics. The near-optimal PC solution may be generated by first generating a set of possible power patterns in accordance with likely scheduling scenarios, then statistically narrowing the set of possible power patterns to identify the most commonly used power patterns, and finally selecting one of the most commonly used power patterns as the near-optimal power pattern. In another example, a table of optimal PC solutions are provided for performing distributed PC and scheduling in an adaptive and/or dynamic manner.