Patent ID: 7519299

Claim:
An optical signal regenerative repeater comprising: a first optical 3R repeater which receives an optical communication signal pulse, and regenerates said optical communication signal pulse, wherein said first optical 3R repeater comprises: a first clock extraction unit which extracts a clock from said optical communication signal pulse and which generates a first optical clock pulse synchronized with said extracted first clock, and a first optical gate, which is opened and closed in accordance with a first control light corresponding to said optical communication signal pulse, which receives as a first controlled light said first optical clock pulse generated by said first clock extraction unit, and which generates a first regenerated signal pulse corresponding to said optical communication signal pulse, wherein a pulse time width of said first control light is different from a pulse time width of said first controlled light, and wherein said optical signal regenerative repeater further comprises: a second optical 3R repeater which receives said first regenerated signal pulse output by said first optical 3R repeater as an intermediate signal light, and regenerates said optical communication signal pulse based on said intermediate signal light; wherein a pulse time width of said intermediate signal light is smaller than a pulse time width of said optical communication signal pulse; and wherein said second optical 3R repeater comprises: a second clock extraction unit, which extracts a second clock from said intermediate signal light and generates a second optical clock pulse synchronized with said extracted second clock and having an arbitrary pulse time width for optical communication; and a second optical gate, which is opened and closed in accordance with a second control light corresponding to said intermediate signal light, which receives as a second controlled light said second optical clock pulse generated by said second clock extraction unit, and which generates a second regenerated signal pulse corresponding to said optical communication signal pulse.