  Recently, a series of theoretical and experimental papers on free-space
propagation of pulsed Laguerre-Gaussian and Bessel beams was published, which
reached contradictory and controversial results about group velocities of such
pulses. Depending on themeasurement scheme, the group velocity can be defined
differently.We analyze how different versions of group velocity are related to
the measurable travel time (time of flight) of the pulse between input (source)
and output (detecting) planes. The analysis is tested on a theoretical
model---the Bessel-Gauss pulse whose propagation path exhibits both subluminal
and superluminal regions. Our main conclusion from resolving the contradictions
in the literature is that different versions of group velocity are appropriate,
depending on whether or not the beam is hollow and how the pulse is recorded in
the output plane---integrally or with spatial resolution.
