diff --git a/of-save/lib/src/main/java/org/projectfloodlight/openflow/util/StringByteSerializer.java b/of-save/lib/src/main/java/org/projectfloodlight/openflow/util/StringByteSerializer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6949fb2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/of-save/lib/src/main/java/org/projectfloodlight/openflow/util/StringByteSerializer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+/**
+ *    Copyright (c) 2008 The Board of Trustees of The Leland Stanford Junior
+ *    University
+ *
+ *    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ *    not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain
+ *    a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ *    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ *    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT
+ *    WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the
+ *    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ *    under the License.
+ **/
+
+package org.projectfloodlight.openflow.util;
+
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+
+import org.jboss.netty.buffer.ChannelBuffer;
+
+public class StringByteSerializer {
+    public static String readFrom(final ChannelBuffer data, final int length) {
+        byte[] stringBytes = new byte[length];
+        data.readBytes(stringBytes);
+        // find the first index of 0
+        int index = 0;
+        for (byte b : stringBytes) {
+            if (0 == b)
+                break;
+            ++index;
+        }
+        return new String(Arrays.copyOf(stringBytes, index), Charset.forName("ascii"));
+    }
+
+    public static void writeTo(final ChannelBuffer data, final int length,
+            final String value) {
+        try {
+            byte[] name = value.getBytes("ASCII");
+            if (name.length < length) {
+                data.writeBytes(name);
+                for (int i = name.length; i < length; ++i) {
+                    data.writeByte((byte) 0);
+                }
+            } else {
+                data.writeBytes(name, 0, length - 1);
+                data.writeByte((byte) 0);
+            }
+        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
+            throw new RuntimeException(e);
+        }
+
+    }
+}