Forward error correction method and communication method, and forward error correction code addition apparatus and communication apparatus

A communication apparatus, comprising:

• an FEC encoder which adds information bits represented by an information bit matrix with n rows and m columns (n, m are natural numbers) to forward error correction code represented by an odd number of redundancy information bit rows and an odd number of redundancy information bit columns based on the information bit matrix, which are provided in the row direction and in the column direction of the information bit matrix respectively;
• a packet transmitting section which transmits packets including data in which the forward error correction code is added to the information bits;
• a packet receiving section which receives the packets;
• and
• an FEC decoder which performs error correction based on data included in the packets received by the packet receiving section,
• wherein the FEC decoder provides a variable degree of reliability for information subjected to error correction.