Methods, systems, and computer program products for operating a communication network by performing forward error correction and/or interleaving based on network layer forwarding information

A communication network, comprising:

• a network infrastructure that supports an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol model;
• means for performing forward error correction (FEC) and/or interleaving of frames associated with a plurality of different network forwarding classes based on forwarding information associated with a network layer of an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol model;
• and
• means for forwarding the frames on a common data link layer of the OSI protocol model

A computer program for operating a communication network, comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising:
• computer readable program code configured to perform forward error correction (FEC) and/or interleaving of frames associated with a plurality of different network forwarding classes based on forwarding information associated with a network layer of an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol model;
• and
• computer readable program code configured to forward the frames on a common data link layer of the OSI protocol model.