diff --git a/openflow/api/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/of/controller/driver/RoleHandler.java b/openflow/api/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/of/controller/driver/RoleHandler.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bfded52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/openflow/api/src/main/java/org/onlab/onos/of/controller/driver/RoleHandler.java
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+package org.onlab.onos.of.controller.driver;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+import org.onlab.onos.of.controller.RoleState;
+import org.projectfloodlight.openflow.protocol.OFErrorMsg;
+import org.projectfloodlight.openflow.protocol.OFExperimenter;
+import org.projectfloodlight.openflow.protocol.OFRoleReply;
+
+/**
+ * Role handling.
+ *
+ */
+public interface RoleHandler {
+
+    /**
+     * Extract the role from an OFVendor message.
+     *
+     * Extract the role from an OFVendor message if the message is a
+     * Nicira role reply. Otherwise return null.
+     *
+     * @param experimenterMsg The vendor message to parse.
+     * @return The role in the message if the message is a Nicira role
+     * reply, null otherwise.
+     * @throws SwitchStateException If the message is a Nicira role reply
+     * but the numeric role value is unknown.
+     */
+    public RoleState extractNiciraRoleReply(OFExperimenter experimenterMsg)
+            throws SwitchStateException;
+
+    /**
+     * Send a role request with the given role to the switch and update
+     * the pending request and timestamp.
+     * Sends an OFPT_ROLE_REQUEST to an OF1.3 switch, OR
+     * Sends an NX_ROLE_REQUEST to an OF1.0 switch if configured to support it
+     * in the IOFSwitch driver. If not supported, this method sends nothing
+     * and returns 'false'. The caller should take appropriate action.
+     *
+     * One other optimization we do here is that for OF1.0 switches with
+     * Nicira role message support, we force the Role.EQUAL to become
+     * Role.SLAVE, as there is no defined behavior for the Nicira role OTHER.
+     * We cannot expect it to behave like SLAVE. We don't have this problem with
+     * OF1.3 switches, because Role.EQUAL is well defined and we can simulate
+     * SLAVE behavior by using ASYNC messages.
+     *
+     * @param role
+     * @throws IOException
+     * @return false if and only if the switch does not support role-request
+     * messages, according to the switch driver; true otherwise.
+     */
+    public boolean sendRoleRequest(RoleState role, RoleRecvStatus exp)
+            throws IOException;
+
+    /**
+     * Extract the role information from an OF1.3 Role Reply Message.
+     * @param rrmsg role reply message
+     * @return RoleReplyInfo object
+     * @throws SwitchStateException
+     */
+    public RoleReplyInfo extractOFRoleReply(OFRoleReply rrmsg)
+            throws SwitchStateException;
+
+    /**
+     * Deliver a received role reply.
+     *
+     * Check if a request is pending and if the received reply matches the
+     * the expected pending reply (we check both role and xid) we set
+     * the role for the switch/channel.
+     *
+     * If a request is pending but doesn't match the reply we ignore it, and
+     * return
+     *
+     * If no request is pending we disconnect with a SwitchStateException
+     *
+     * @param rri information about role-reply in format that
+     *                      controller can understand.
+     * @throws SwitchStateException if no request is pending
+     */
+    public RoleRecvStatus deliverRoleReply(RoleReplyInfo rri)
+            throws SwitchStateException;
+
+
+    /**
+     * Called if we receive an  error message. If the xid matches the
+     * pending request we handle it otherwise we ignore it.
+     *
+     * Note: since we only keep the last pending request we might get
+     * error messages for earlier role requests that we won't be able
+     * to handle
+     */
+    public RoleRecvStatus deliverError(OFErrorMsg error)
+            throws SwitchStateException;
+
+}