According to some embodiments, a method of transmitting a radio signal in a first wireless network element comprises receiving, at an input of a radio transmitter, a signal for wireless transmission; selectively performing a signal linearization technique on the signal; amplifying the signal with a non-linear amplifier; and transmitting the amplified signal to a second wireless network element. According to particular embodiments, selectively performing the signal linearization technique comprises determining a modulation order of the received signal and determining the modulation order exceeds a modulation order threshold.