An optical communication system including repeaters which return a preamble signal to the receive line as soon as it detects a carrier on the transmit line of a single line optical bus. Therefore, transmission equipment can confirm data transmission quickly because the time delay between data transmission and its confirmation is decreased. The repeater also monitors a time delay associated with the return through a return loop of the transmitted data, and produces and transmits a failure signal when the time delay is longer than a predetermined value. The system also includes an optical transceiver connected between the optical bus and the transmission equipment which converts optical signals into electrical signals and visa versa and also adds the preamble signal to the front of data to be transmitted.