One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates construction of a forward error correction (FEC) coded Ethernet frame. During operation, the system receives a conventional Ethernet frame. The system then generates a number of FEC parity bits for the conventional Ethernet frame and inserts a start sequence before the conventional Ethernet frame. Next, the system appends an even- or odd-delimiter to the conventional Ethernet frame. The even-delimiter is used to separate the conventional Ethernet frame from the FEC parity bits if the last symbol of the conventional Ethernet frame is in an odd-numbered position. The odd-delimiter is used to separate the conventional Ethernet frame from the FEC parity bits if the last symbol of the conventional Ethernet frame is in an even-numbered position. The even-delimiter and the odd-delimiter are selected such that there is a sufficiently large Hamming distance between them, thereby reducing the probability of mistaking the even-delimiter for the odd-delimiter, or mistaking the odd-delimiter for the even-delimiter, if bit error occurs within the even- or odd-delimiter. The system also appends the number of FEC parity bits to the even- or odd-delimiter and appends a second delimiter to the FEC parity bits.