A system for data-based pre-distortion for a nonlinear power amplifier includes a digital pre-distortion (DPD) component, including a DPD processor and a DPD calibration engine, where the DPD processor applies a set of DPD coefficients to a digital baseband data signal, to generate a pre-distorted digital baseband data signal for conversion to a radio frequency (RF) signal and amplification by a nonlinear power amplifier (PA) to generate an RF output signal, where the DPD calibration engine compares a digitized, down-converted version of the RF output signal with the digital baseband data signal, to determine distortion coefficients of the nonlinear PA, and to update the set of pre-distortion coefficients in the DPD processor to compensate for the distortion coefficients of the non-linear PA, where data transmission is uninterrupted by the transmission of non-data calibration signals.