Various embodiments herein provide techniques for minimum mean-square error interference rejection combining (MMSE-IRC) processing of a received signal, distributed between a baseband unit (BBU) and a remote radio unit (RRU). The RRU may perform a first phase of processing based on an extended channel that includes a channel of one or more user equipments (UEs) served by the RRU and interference samples that correspond to other cells or additive noise. The first phase may include scaling the interference samples by a scaling coefficient to obtain a modified extended channel, and performing maximum ratio combining (MRC) on the modified extended channel to obtain a processed signal. The RRU may send the processed signal to the BBU for the second phase of processing. The second phase of processing may include regularized zero forcing to remove interference. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.