A method and apparatus perform forward error correction in a wireless communication device in a wireless communication network. Application layer forward error correction (AL-FEC) capability information is transmitted during a capabilities exchange. A set of source packets are reshaped to k equal-sized source symbols. Systematic packets for the source symbols and at least one parity packet is encoded using a single parity check (SPC) AL-FEC code on the k source symbols. A header of each encoded packet includes a parity packet indicator. The encoded packets are processed in a media access control (MAC) layer and a physical (PHY) layer for transmission.