A method for wireless network operation includes, in a cluster of transmitters and receivers in a wireless network, configuring a transmitter of a first node and a transmitter of an interfering node to transmit only in their own dedicated time-frequency partition a signal at a non-zero transmission power, and to transmit a zero power signal in a second time-frequency partition. A receiver of a second node is configured to measure a first received power in a third time-frequency partition dedicated to an interfering transmitter and a second received power in the second time-frequency partition dedicated to receive interference from outside the cluster. A net signal power is determined by subtracting the second received power from the first received power. A coupling loss between the interfering transmitter and the receiver is computed based on the net signal power and the non-zero transmission power.