Physical Layer Security Over Correlated Log-Normal Cooperative Power Line Communication Channels

Power line communication (PLC) has enabled many smart grid applications and functionalities over the past few years. Secure communications over such links however remain a crucial aspect for further development. Due to their shared nature, akin to wireless, PLC channels can benefit from many wirelesstype security techniques, including physical layer security. To this end, and in contrast to existing studies, which focus on non-cooperative PLC systems, this paper considers the application of physical layer security in cooperative PLC networks in the presence of passive eavesdropping. We analyze the performance of such systems using log-normal correlated channel models considering background and impulsive noise components. Furthermore, the impact of PLC/wireless coding diversity on the system secrecy capacity is evaluated. The results include accurate mathematical expressions for providing an insight into the secrecy capacity and outage probability performance of such systems under various network scenarios.