An optical receiver utilizes differential quadrature phase-shift keying (DQPSK) demodulation and electrical crosstalk rejection to relax requirements on filter misalignment with a carrier signal and to enable electronic polarization demultiplexing of optical signals. The optical receiver uses additional polarization state information when performing differential phase measurements on the optical signals. This provides information that ensures that data can be recovered by the optical receiver regardless of the state of polarization introduced during transmission of the optical signals. The optical receiver over samples the optical signals, which enables electrical polarization demultiplexing of the optical signals. The electrical crosstalk rejection provides a tracking algorithm that isolates received optical signals, and reduces crosstalk between data sequences.