  We study the notion of structured realizability for linear systems defined
over graphs. A stabilizable and detectable realization is structured if the
state-space matrices inherit the sparsity pattern of the adjacency matrix of
the associated graph. In this paper, we demonstrate that not every structured
transfer matrix has a structured realization and we reveal the practical
meaning of this fact. We also uncover a close connection between the structured
realizability of a plant and whether the plant can be stabilized by a
structured controller. In particular, we show that a structured stabilizing
controller can only exist when the plant admits a structured realization.
Finally, we give a parameterization of all structured stabilizing controllers
and show that they always have structured realizations.
