diff --git a/core/api/src/test/java/org/onlab/onos/codec/JsonCodecTest.java b/core/api/src/test/java/org/onlab/onos/codec/JsonCodecTest.java
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+++ b/core/api/src/test/java/org/onlab/onos/codec/JsonCodecTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you 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.onlab.onos.codec;
+
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ArrayNode;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.node.ObjectNode;
+import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Objects;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+/**
+ * Test of the base JSON codec abstraction.
+ */
+public class JsonCodecTest {
+
+    private static class Foo {
+        final String name;
+
+        Foo(String name) {
+            this.name = name;
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public int hashCode() {
+            return Objects.hash(name);
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public boolean equals(Object obj) {
+            if (this == obj) {
+                return true;
+            }
+            if (obj == null || getClass() != obj.getClass()) {
+                return false;
+            }
+            final Foo other = (Foo) obj;
+            return Objects.equals(this.name, other.name);
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static class FooCodec extends JsonCodec<Foo> {
+        @Override
+        public ObjectNode encode(Foo entity, ObjectMapper mapper) {
+            return mapper.createObjectNode().put("name", entity.name);
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public Foo decode(ObjectNode json) {
+            return new Foo(json.get("name").asText());
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void encode() {
+        Foo f1 = new Foo("foo");
+        Foo f2 = new Foo("bar");
+        FooCodec codec = new FooCodec();
+        ImmutableList<Foo> entities = ImmutableList.of(f1, f2);
+        ArrayNode json = codec.encode(entities, new ObjectMapper());
+        List<Foo> foos = codec.decode(json);
+        assertEquals("incorrect encode/decode", entities, foos);
+    }
+
+}
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