diff --git a/apps/routing/src/main/java/org/onosproject/routing/fpm/protocol/RouteAttributeDecoder.java b/apps/routing/src/main/java/org/onosproject/routing/fpm/protocol/RouteAttributeDecoder.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b287fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/routing/src/main/java/org/onosproject/routing/fpm/protocol/RouteAttributeDecoder.java
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2016 Open Networking Laboratory
+ *
+ * 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.onosproject.routing.fpm.protocol;
+
+import org.onlab.packet.DeserializationException;
+
+/**
+ * Decoder for a route attribute.
+ */
+@FunctionalInterface
+public interface RouteAttributeDecoder<A extends RouteAttribute> {
+
+    /**
+     * Decodes the a route attribute from the input buffer.
+     *
+     * @param length length of the attribute
+     * @param type type of the attribute
+     * @param value input buffer
+     * @return route attribute
+     * @throws DeserializationException if a route attribute could not be
+     * decoded from the input buffer
+     */
+    A decodeAttribute(int length, int type, byte[] value)
+            throws DeserializationException;
+}