Method for iterative hard-decision forward error correction decoding

1. A method comprising:

iteratively decoding a set of hard input data that has been transmitted optically, the set of hard input data having a set of information symbols, each of the set of information symbols encoded with a first forward error correction (FEC) encoding scheme and with a second FEC encoding scheme,

wherein an iterative decoder performs at least one iteration of decoding the first FEC encoding scheme and the second FEC encoding scheme and then passes data to a hybrid unit iterative decoder/dewrapper and encoder/wrapper that is implemented as a single component, and

wherein the hybrid unit iterative decoder/dewrapper and encoder/wrapper performs at least one iteration of decoding the first FEC encoding scheme and the second FEC encoding scheme; and

wrapping and encoding a second set of data with the hybrid unit iterative decoder/dewrapper and encoder/wrapper.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said iteratively decoding comprises iteratively decoding code words encoded with the first FEC encoding scheme, which do not align against code words encoded with the second FEC encoding scheme.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of information symbols are also encoded with a third FEC encoding scheme.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether to perform additional iterations based on whether or not errors were corrected as a result of a prior iteration.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second FEC encoding schemes are a Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCE) encoding algorithm with different parameters.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second FEC encoding schemes are a block based encoding algorithm with different parameters.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second FEC encoding schemes are a Solomon-Reed algorithm with different parameters.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second FEC encoding schemes are different FEC encoding algorithms.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein decoding of the different encoding schemes are performed in parallel.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the single component is on a board.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising another iterative decoder performing at least one iteration of decoding the first FEC encoding scheme and the second FEC encoding scheme.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing at least one iteration of iteratively decoding the set of hard input data with another iterative decoder that is separate from the iterative decoder.