18. A device comprising: one or more components to: receive a word, of a block of words within traffic, on which to perform a forward error correction operation, the word including a plurality of samples, each one of the plurality of samples including respective encoded bits and respective reliability bits, the respective reliability bits corresponding to a respective level of reliability of the respective encoded bits, obtain segments from the word, each of the segments including a respective subset of samples of the plurality of samples, modify, on a per segment basis, reliability levels associated with the word based on extrinsic information associated with a previously processed word, identify, on the per segment basis, sets of least reliable positions (LRPs) associated with the segments, each of the sets of LRPs corresponding to a respective portion, of each subset of samples, associated with lowest levels of reliability, create a subset of LRPs based on selected samples, of the respective portion of each of the subsets of samples, associated with one or more of the lowest levels of reliability, generate candidate words based on different combinations of inverted encoded bits, within the word, that correspond to the selected samples, decode the word and the candidate words to identify one or more errors within the word or the candidate words, update, using the extrinsic information, a segment of the word based on a determination that the segment includes an error of the one or more errors, create, on the per segment basis, an updated word, the updated word including the updated segment and other segments, of the word, associated with the modified reliability levels, determine, on the per segment basis, distances between the segments of the updated word and segments of selected candidate words, identify, as a best word, one of the selected candidate words associated with a shortest one of the distances, and perform the forward error correction, on a next word of the block of words, using the best word.
22. The device of claim 18 , further comprising: a memory to store the updated word or the segments, of the word, associated with the modified reliability levels; and where, after generating candidate words, the one or more components are further to: discard, from the memory, all or a portion of the updated word or the segments associated with the modified reliability levels.