In staircase forward error correction coding, a stream of data symbols are mapped to data symbol positions in a sequence of two-dimensional symbol blocks Bi, i a positive integer. Each of the symbol blocks has data symbol positions and coding symbol positions. Coding symbols for the coding symbol positions in each symbol block Bi in the sequence are computed. The coding symbols are computed such that, for each symbol block Bi that has a preceding symbol block Bi−1 and a subsequent symbol block Bi+1 in the sequence, symbols at symbol positions along one dimension of the preceding symbol block Bi−1, concatenated with the data symbols and the coding symbols along the other dimension in the symbol block Bi, form a codeword of a FEC component code, and symbols at symbol positions along the one dimension of the symbol block Bi, concatenated with the data symbols and the coding symbols along the other dimension in the subsequent symbol block Bi+1, form a codeword of the FEC component code. Thus, each row in [Bi−1T Bi] and each column in [ B i B i + 1 T ] , for example, is a valid codeword.