A system, method, and computer readable medium for increasing an upstream optical coding gain in a passive optical network (PON). In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the system may include a memory structured to store Optical Network Terminator (ONT) burst timing values, and provide a previous burst timing value of the burst timing values to a translator. Further, an upstream burst grant timing scheduler may provide a scheduled timing value to the translator, wherein the translator may be structured to translate the previous burst timing value to a new expected timing value per an ONT upstream burst in association with the scheduled timing value. Also, a delimiter match and search block may be structured to use the new expected timing value to check a bit stream for a delimiter pattern match. An alarm counter may be provided in the system that is structured to provide an alarm when the delimiter pattern match is not found.