A communication device includes a first alignment circuit configured to receive, from a host device, a first encoded data stream including a plurality of symbols encoded with a first type of error correction code. The first alignment circuit is configured to output an aligned first encoded data stream that is aligned to boundaries between the plurality of symbols encoded with the first type of error correction code. An interleaver is configured to interleave the plurality of symbols of the aligned first encoded data stream into symbol sections each including a predetermined number of symbols encoded with the first type of error correction code. An encoder is configured to generate, for each of the symbol sections, a parity block corresponding to the symbols in the symbol section and to output a second encoded data stream including the aligned first encoded data stream and the parity block.