Disclosed are an apparatus for regenerating a distorted optical signal
through reamplification, regenerating, and retiming processes in an
optical communication network and a method thereof. The apparatus
includes an optical clock generation section for generating an optical
clock signal of a specified frequency, an optical signal sampling section
for sampling a distorted non-return-to-zero (NRZ) optical signal in
synchronization with the clock signal from the optical clock generation
section, an optical signal regenerating section for regenerating an
output signal of the sampling section, and a return-to-zero (RZ)/NRZ
conversion section for converting the optical signal reshaped by the
optical signal regenerating section into an NRZ optical signal. The
apparatus overcomes the limitations of the signal processing speed
produced in the electric 3R type regenerator, and enable the signal
regenerating to be performed without the necessity of an optical clock
extraction apparatus.