Methods and apparatus employing FEC codes with permanent inactivation of symbols for encoding and decoding processes

A method of encoding data for transmission from a source to a destination over a communications channel is provided. A plurality of encoded symbols are generated from a set of input symbols including source symbols and redundant symbols, wherein the input symbols are organized such that at least one of the input symbols is not used for a first encoding process, so that it is permanently inactivated for the purposes of scheduling a decoding process. A method of decoding data is also provided, wherein encoded symbols generated from a set of input symbols are used to recover source symbols, wherein the input symbols are organized such that at least one of the input symbols is not used for a first decoding process, so that it is permanently inactivated for the purpose of scheduling the decoding process.