Patent ID: 8418036

Claim:
A method for a transmitting network device to encode data for transmission on a network link to a receiving network device, comprising: obtaining a media access control (MAC) frame scheduled for a physical layer (PHY) payload transmission and having a MAC frame length, wherein the PHY payload comprises a number of symbols; obtaining a default forward error correction (FEC) coding scheme for the network link, the default FEC coding scheme having a default parity length; calculating a payload capacity value for the PHY payload using characteristics of the default coding scheme; if the payload capacity value is at least as great as the default parity length, determining a new FEC coding scheme that maintains the number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols and is configured such that a symbol pad length for the PHY payload using the new FEC coding scheme is less than a default symbol pad length for the PHY payload using the default FEC coding scheme; and encoding the MAC frame using the new FEC coding scheme.