Abstract
The authors discuss theoretical and experimental investigations of clipping distortion in CATV systems. After reporting an exact form of an earlier clipping model, the authors present a new model which predicts the clipping distortion at each intermodulation product (IMP) frequency of a set of carriers as a function of their modulation depth for all orders. This allows the calculation of distortion ratios (CSO, CTB, and CNLD) from basic principles, expressed in closed form. Experiments were performed to test the model's validity. The results of CSO, CTB, and CNLD measurements are presented and they are found to agree well with the predictions of the model.