A method comprising: receiving, by a network device, a block of symbols associated with a phase-modulated signal, the block of symbols including: data symbols that correspond to a payload associated with the signal, and control symbols; obtaining, by the network device, the control symbols from the block of symbols; processing, by the network device, the control symbols to identify an amount of phase noise associated with each of the control symbols; characterized in that the method further includes: correcting, by the network device, a respective phase, associated with each of the data symbols, based on the amount of phase noise of each of the control symbols and at least one reference phase; interleaving, by the network device and as a result of correcting the phase, respective data samples, of each of the data symbols, with other data samples, where interleaving the respective data samples with the other samples: causes consecutive errors, associated with the respective data samples, to be spread out among the other data samples, and reduces an error rate relative to a prior error rate that existed before the interleaving; and performing, by the network device, forward error correction on the interleaved respective data samples. receiving, by a network device, a block of symbols associated with a phase-modulated signal, the block of symbols including: data symbols that correspond to a payload associated with the signal, and control symbols; data symbols that correspond to a payload associated with the signal, and control symbols; obtaining, by the network device, the control symbols from the block of symbols; processing, by the network device, the control symbols to identify an amount of phase noise associated with each of the control symbols; characterized in that the method further includes: correcting, by the network device, a respective phase, associated with each of the data symbols, based on the amount of phase noise of each of the control symbols and at least one reference phase; interleaving, by the network device and as a result of correcting the phase, respective data samples, of each of the data symbols, with other data samples, where interleaving the respective data samples with the other samples: causes consecutive errors, associated with the respective data samples, to be spread out among the other data samples, and reduces an error rate relative to a prior error rate that existed before the interleaving; and performing, by the network device, forward error correction on the interleaved respective data samples. correcting, by the network device, a respective phase, associated with each of the data symbols, based on the amount of phase noise of each of the control symbols and at least one reference phase; interleaving, by the network device and as a result of correcting the phase, respective data samples, of each of the data symbols, with other data samples, where interleaving the respective data samples with the other samples: causes consecutive errors, associated with the respective data samples, to be spread out among the other data samples, and reduces an error rate relative to a prior error rate that existed before the interleaving; and causes consecutive errors, associated with the respective data samples, to be spread out among the other data samples, and reduces an error rate relative to a prior error rate that existed before the interleaving; and performing, by the network device, forward error correction on the interleaved respective data samples.