A protocol for optimizing the use of coded transmissions such as over wireless links. In this technique, interframes are first split into segments selected to be an optimum size according to transmission characteristics of the radio channel. Segments are assigned a position identifier and redundancy check sum. Segments are then assembled into blocks and a forward error correction algorithm is applied to the block to generate redundancy bits. The FEC block is then split up among available communication channels and forwarded to the receiver. The inverse process is applied at the receiver. Using this scheme, only segments containing erroneous data need to be resent. A large block size required for high performance forward error correction may therefore be used while at the same time minimizing latencies associated with the need to resend entire blocks when errors cannot be recovered.