The invention provides a utility function based distributed type power control method for a cognitive radio system, belongs to the technical field of wireless communication, and particularly relates to power control used in the cognitive radio system. The invention relates to a compromise solution not only meeting the requirement on protecting a main user, but also supporting the requirement on the service quality of the cognitive user. The scheme is based on the non-cooperative game theory, namely the self-regulation of transmitting power of various CRUs is only needed, so that the defect existing in the conventional distributed type power control that huge information interaction is needed is overcome. By analyzing the geometric characteristics of the utility function, skillfully setting the parameters of the utility function and simultaneously combining the access control, the convergence of power is ensured; simultaneously, by regulating the parameters, the needs for the prior network services are met; in addition, a frame structure and a protocol flow which are suitable for the power control method are designed, and the frame structure and the protocol flow are suitable for any distributed type cognitive radio system, so that the power control method has quite strong practicability.