A system and method are provided for framing messages in a data streams encoded with redundant information for transmission and recovering the messages at a receiver. The transmission method accepts an energy waveform representing N words at a first bit rate, encoded with redundant information, where each word includes P number of bits. The N words are transformed, creating N transcoded words, where each transcoded word includes Q number of bits, and where Q 1 and each lane receives a frame of N/M transcoded words. A frame alignment marker is generated and mapped into each frame. Each frame is represented as an energy waveform that is transmitted on a corresponding physical lane at the first bit rate divided by M.