Abstract: In accordance with various aspects of the disclosure, a method, an apparatus and a system for characterizing and compensating for deterministic phase nonlinearities and distortion inherent in radio frequency and optical components utilized to synthesize a single sideband suppressed carrier optical waveform in the presence of random phase noise generated by an optical carrier source is disclosed. The method comprises mixing a modulated optical signal with a continuous wave optical signal in an optical coupler; optically heterodyning the mixed signal output from the optical coupler in a detector to produce a radio frequency waveform; and analyzing the produced radio frequency waveform in a processor based on a phase history of a preselected continuous wave signal to measure distortion characteristics of the radio frequency modulated optical signal.