Securing powerline communications

Powerline Communications represents an exceptionally promising alternative for high-speed Internet access and data networking. Its strength and popularity can be attributed to its ubiquitous nature and readily available infrastructure. Multiple applications are envisioned and powerlines have become increasing popular choice for creating residential networks. This communication medium has been well studied and standardization of the technologies are undergoing. However, the security aspects of PLC networks are not well studied and there is an urgent need for that. In this paper, we put forth several security requirements needed of PLC networks and justify them through multiple scenarios. We then propose a Security Architecture to realize these requirements.