diff --git a/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/ui/UiMessageHandler.java b/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/ui/UiMessageHandler.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f70780
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/ui/UiMessageHandler.java
@@ -0,0 +1,166 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2015 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.ui;
+
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode;
+import org.onlab.osgi.ServiceDirectory;
+
+import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Set;
+
+import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkArgument;
+import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkNotNull;
+
+/**
+ * Abstraction of an entity capable of processing a JSON message from the user
+ * interface client.
+ * <p>
+ * The message is a JSON object with the following structure:
+ * </p>
+ * <pre>
+ * {
+ *     "type": "<em>event-type</em>",
+ *     "sid": "<em>sequence-number</em>",
+ *     "payload": {
+ *         <em>arbitrary JSON object structure</em>
+ *     }
+ * }
+ * </pre>
+ */
+public abstract class UiMessageHandler {
+
+    private final Map<String, RequestHandler> handlerMap = new HashMap<>();
+
+    private UiConnection connection;
+    private ServiceDirectory directory;
+
+    /**
+     * Mapper for creating ObjectNodes and ArrayNodes etc.
+     */
+    protected final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
+
+
+    /**
+     * Subclasses must return the collection of handlers for the
+     * message types they handle.
+     *
+     * @return the message handler instances
+     */
+    protected abstract Collection<RequestHandler> getHandlers();
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the set of message types which this handler is capable of
+     * processing.
+     *
+     * @return set of message types
+     */
+    public Set<String> messageTypes() {
+        return Collections.unmodifiableSet(handlerMap.keySet());
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Processes a JSON message from the user interface client.
+     *
+     * @param message JSON message
+     */
+    public void process(ObjectNode message) {
+        String type = JsonUtils.eventType(message);
+        long sid = JsonUtils.sid(message);
+        ObjectNode payload = JsonUtils.payload(message);
+        exec(type, sid, payload);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Finds the appropriate handler and executes the process method.
+     *
+     * @param eventType event type
+     * @param sid       sequence identifier
+     * @param payload   message payload
+     */
+    void exec(String eventType, long sid, ObjectNode payload) {
+        RequestHandler handler = handlerMap.get(eventType);
+        if (handler != null) {
+            handler.process(sid, payload);
+        }
+    }
+
+    private void bindHandlers() {
+        Collection<RequestHandler> handlers = getHandlers();
+        checkNotNull(handlers, "Handlers cannot be null");
+        checkArgument(!handlers.isEmpty(), "Handlers cannot be empty");
+
+        for (RequestHandler h : handlers) {
+            h.setParent(this);
+            handlerMap.put(h.eventType(), h);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Initializes the handler with the user interface connection and
+     * service directory context.
+     *
+     * @param connection user interface connection
+     * @param directory  service directory
+     */
+    public void init(UiConnection connection, ServiceDirectory directory) {
+        this.connection = connection;
+        this.directory = directory;
+        bindHandlers();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Destroys the message handler context.
+     */
+    public void destroy() {
+        this.connection = null;
+        this.directory = null;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the user interface connection with which this handler was primed.
+     *
+     * @return user interface connection
+     */
+    public UiConnection connection() {
+        return connection;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the user interface connection with which this handler was primed.
+     *
+     * @return user interface connection
+     */
+    public ServiceDirectory directory() {
+        return directory;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Returns implementation of the specified service class.
+     *
+     * @param serviceClass service class
+     * @param <T>          type of service
+     * @return implementation class
+     * @throws org.onlab.osgi.ServiceNotFoundException if no implementation found
+     */
+    protected <T> T get(Class<T> serviceClass) {
+        return directory.get(serviceClass);
+    }
+
+}