Abstract: With the advantage of large bandwidth and narrow beam, millimeter wave (mm-wave) radio has many important applications in radar and imaging fields. Radio over fiber (ROF) is a significant solution for remote transmission of mm-wave. The parameters of ROF have a decisive effect on the quality of mm-wave transmission. The mathematical modeling of electro-optic conversion and ROF link is carried out, and the calculation formulas of the performance indexes such as link gain, 1 dB compression point, noise floor, noise figure and dynamic range are given. More than that, the parameter optimization and cascade link optimization methods of ROF for engineering application are proposed. Through above optimization process, the designed optical ROF link can achieve the optimal performance.