SimpleLinkStore with annotation and multi-provider support

Change-Id: I98a35c4497363c6115fd0c61d140dfe7790e6cee
diff --git a/core/api/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/net/AnnotationsUtil.java b/core/api/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/net/AnnotationsUtil.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b71d95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/api/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/net/AnnotationsUtil.java
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+package org.onlab.onos.net;
+
+public final class AnnotationsUtil {
+
+    public static boolean isEqual(Annotations lhs, Annotations rhs) {
+        if (lhs == rhs) {
+            return true;
+        }
+        if (lhs == null || rhs == null) {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        if (!lhs.keys().equals(rhs.keys())) {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        for (String key : lhs.keys()) {
+            if (!lhs.value(key).equals(rhs.value(key))) {
+                return false;
+            }
+        }
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    // not to be instantiated
+    private AnnotationsUtil() {}
+}