In one embodiment, a device is provided. The device includes a first formatting circuit configured to add zero padding bits to a received data block. An FEC encoder circuit is coupled to the first formatting circuit and is configured to determine parity bits for the data block at a first code rate. A second formatting circuit is coupled to the FEC encoder circuit and is configured to combine the parity bits with the data block and remove the zero padding bits to provide an FEC coded data block at a second code rate. The second code rate is less than the first code rate.