Patent ID: 8560914

Claim:
A method of indicating an uncorrectable data block in a Passive Optical Network (PON), the method comprising: performing forward error correction (FEC) decoding on an FEC codeword; if the forward error correction decoding fails, setting a synchronization character of at least one data block of data having a decoding failure to a first character; performing 64/66b line decoding on a data block that comprises the first character, wherein the first character comprises “10”, “11” or “00”; when synchronization characters of first and last blocks of data of the FEC codeword are “10” and a synchronization character of at least one other block of data of the FEC codeword is at least one of “11” or “00”, replacing all data in data blocks of the FEC codeword to control character /E/; and outputting decoded data.