diff --git a/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/net/packet/PacketInClassifier.java b/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/net/packet/PacketInClassifier.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..34c7502
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/api/src/main/java/org/onosproject/net/packet/PacketInClassifier.java
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2019-present Open Networking Foundation
+ *
+ * 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.net.packet;
+
+
+/**
+ * Abstraction of incoming packet classifier for filtering.
+ */
+public interface PacketInClassifier {
+
+    /**
+     * Returns true if the packet classifier matches else false.
+     * The matching criterion should be non overlapping with other
+     * implementation of the PacketInClassifier.
+     *
+     * @param packet PacketContext holding the packet information
+     * @return boolean checks whether packet matches classifier
+     */
+    boolean match(PacketContext packet);
+
+}