Methods and systems for transmitting and receiving data include reverse concatenated encoding and decoding. Reverse concatenated decoding includes inner decoding the encoded stream with an inner decoder that uses a low-complexity linear-block code to produce an inner-decoder output stream, outer decoding the inner-decoder output stream with an outer decoder that uses a low-density parity-check code to produce an information stream, and iterating extrinsic bit reliabilities from the outer decoding for use in subsequent inner decoding to improve decoding performance.