An optical receiver comprising: an optical signal input; at least one local oscillator providing local oscillator light having a local oscillator center frequency; an optical combiner having a first optical input connected to the optical signal input, a second input connected to the at least one local oscillator, and at least one output to output a combined optical signal including an optical signal have an optical signal center frequency from the first optical input and local oscillator light from the second optical input, an opto-electrical converter having an optical signal input optically connected to the at least one output of the optical combiner; a radio frequency, RF, electrical signal output; an intermediate filter electrically connected to the RF electrical signal output to at least substantially remove one of an upper and a lower sideband of a RF electrical signal from the RF electrical signal output and to output one of a vestigial sideband, VSB, and SSB RF signal; a rectifier to rectify the one of a VSB and single sideband, SSB, RF signal into a baseband electrical signal carrying the information; and a local oscillator controller adjustably controlling the local oscillator center frequency relative to the optical signal center frequency and the frequency of the RF electrical signal, where the local oscillator controller is configured to adjust the local oscillator frequency to provide a specified group delay in the RF electrical signal. an optical signal input; at least one local oscillator providing local oscillator light having a local oscillator center frequency; an optical combiner having a first optical input connected to the optical signal input, a second input connected to the at least one local oscillator, and at least one output to output a combined optical signal including an optical signal have an optical signal center frequency from the first optical input and local oscillator light from the second optical input, a first optical input connected to the optical signal input, a second input connected to the at least one local oscillator, and at least one output to output a combined optical signal including an optical signal have an optical signal center frequency from the first optical input and local oscillator light from the second optical input, an opto-electrical converter having an optical signal input optically connected to the at least one output of the optical combiner; a radio frequency, RF, electrical signal output; an intermediate filter electrically connected to the RF electrical signal output to at least substantially remove one of an upper and a lower sideband of a RF electrical signal from the RF electrical signal output and to output one of a vestigial sideband, VSB, and SSB RF signal; a rectifier to rectify the one of a VSB and single sideband, SSB, RF signal into a baseband electrical signal carrying the information; and a local oscillator controller adjustably controlling the local oscillator center frequency relative to the optical signal center frequency and the frequency of the RF electrical signal, where the local oscillator controller is configured to adjust the local oscillator frequency to provide a specified group delay in the RF electrical signal.