A method of detecting an arc fault signal from a high frequency signal on a power line, comprising: monitoring a high frequency signal on a power line over a first predefined time period; partitioning the high frequency signal into a plurality of time-segmented signal segments, each signal segment being a smaller time interval of the first predefined time period; for each signal segment, applying a first filter to a signal spectrum of the signal segment to produce a first filtered signal spectrum with one or more frequency intervals associated with power line communication filtered from the signal spectrum, checking for high frequency signal content in the first filtered signal spectrum of the signal segment, and assigning a first binary value to the signal segment based upon a presence or absence of high frequency signal content in the first filtered signal spectrum; determining whether the high frequency signal includes an arc fault signal based on the first binary values of the plurality of signal segments in the first predefined time period; and causing power to be interrupted on the power line when an arc fault signal is determined, wherein the determining whether the high frequency signal includes an arc fault signal, comprises: counting a number of times that high frequency signal content is present over the predefined time period based on the first binary values; comparing the number of times that high frequency signal content is present over the predefined time period to at least a first high frequency threshold; and detecting an arc fault signal when a condition for the first high frequency threshold is satisfied, the method further comprising: generating a binary word from a sequence of the first binary values for the signal segments from the first predefined time period, wherein the determining further comprises: when the condition for the first high frequency threshold is not satisfied, evaluating the binary word to detect an occurrence of an arc fault signal. monitoring a high frequency signal on a power line over a first predefined time period; partitioning the high frequency signal into a plurality of time-segmented signal segments, each signal segment being a smaller time interval of the first predefined time period; for each signal segment, applying a first filter to a signal spectrum of the signal segment to produce a first filtered signal spectrum with one or more frequency intervals associated with power line communication filtered from the signal spectrum, checking for high frequency signal content in the first filtered signal spectrum of the signal segment, and assigning a first binary value to the signal segment based upon a presence or absence of high frequency signal content in the first filtered signal spectrum; determining whether the high frequency signal includes an arc fault signal based on the first binary values of the plurality of signal segments in the first predefined time period; and causing power to be interrupted on the power line when an arc fault signal is determined, wherein the determining whether the high frequency signal includes an arc fault signal, comprises: counting a number of times that high frequency signal content is present over the predefined time period based on the first binary values; comparing the number of times that high frequency signal content is present over the predefined time period to at least a first high frequency threshold; and detecting an arc fault signal when a condition for the first high frequency threshold is satisfied, the method further comprising: generating a binary word from a sequence of the first binary values for the signal segments from the first predefined time period, wherein the determining further comprises: when the condition for the first high frequency threshold is not satisfied, evaluating the binary word to detect an occurrence of an arc fault signal. counting a number of times that high frequency signal content is present over the predefined time period based on the first binary values; comparing the number of times that high frequency signal content is present over the predefined time period to at least a first high frequency threshold; and detecting an arc fault signal when a condition for the first high frequency threshold is satisfied, the method further comprising: generating a binary word from a sequence of the first binary values for the signal segments from the first predefined time period, wherein the determining further comprises: when the condition for the first high frequency threshold is not satisfied, evaluating the binary word to detect an occurrence of an arc fault signal. generating a binary word from a sequence of the first binary values for the signal segments from the first predefined time period, wherein the determining further comprises: when the condition for the first high frequency threshold is not satisfied, evaluating the binary word to detect an occurrence of an arc fault signal.