diff --git a/src/main/java/net/onrc/onos/apps/sdnip/RestClient.java b/src/main/java/net/onrc/onos/apps/sdnip/RestClient.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe349d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/net/onrc/onos/apps/sdnip/RestClient.java
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+package net.onrc.onos.apps.sdnip;
+
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+
+import org.apache.commons.httpclient.ConnectTimeoutException;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+/**
+ * A simple HTTP client. It is used to make REST calls to the BGPd process.
+ */
+public final class RestClient {
+    private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(RestClient.class);
+
+    /**
+     * Default constructor.
+     */
+    private RestClient() {
+        // Private constructor to prevent instantiation
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Issues a HTTP GET request to the specified URL.
+     *
+     * @param strUrl the URL to make the request to
+     * @return a String containing any data returned by the server
+     */
+    public static String get(String strUrl) {
+        StringBuilder response = new StringBuilder();
+
+        try {
+            URL url = new URL(strUrl);
+            HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
+            conn.setConnectTimeout(2 * 1000); // 2 seconds
+            conn.setRequestMethod("GET");
+            conn.setRequestProperty("Accept", "application/json");
+
+            if (conn.getResponseCode() != 200) {
+                // XXX bad. RestClient API needs to be redesigned
+                throw new IOException("Failed : HTTP error code : "
+                        + conn.getResponseCode());
+            }
+
+            if (!conn.getContentType().equals("application/json")) {
+                log.warn("The content received from {} is not json", strUrl);
+            }
+
+            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
+                            conn.getInputStream(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
+            String line;
+            while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
+                response.append(line);
+            }
+
+            br.close();
+            conn.disconnect();
+
+        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
+            log.error("Malformed URL for GET request", e);
+        } catch (ConnectTimeoutException e) {
+            log.warn("Couldn't connect to the remote REST server", e);
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            log.warn("Couldn't connect to the remote REST server", e);
+        }
+
+        return response.toString();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Issues a HTTP POST request to the specified URL.
+     *
+     * @param strUrl the URL to make the request to
+     */
+    public static void post(String strUrl) {
+
+        try {
+            URL url = new URL(strUrl);
+            HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
+            conn.setDoOutput(true);
+            conn.setRequestMethod("POST");
+            conn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/json");
+
+            if (conn.getResponseCode() != 200) {
+                // XXX bad. RestClient API needs to be redesigned
+                throw new IOException("Failed : HTTP error code : "
+                        + conn.getResponseCode());
+            }
+
+            conn.disconnect();
+
+        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
+            log.error("Malformed URL for GET request", e);
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            log.warn("Couldn't connect to the remote REST server", e);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Issues a HTTP DELETE request to the specified URL.
+     *
+     * @param strUrl the URL to make the request to
+     */
+    public static void delete(String strUrl) {
+
+        try {
+            URL url = new URL(strUrl);
+            HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();
+            conn.setRequestMethod("DELETE");
+            conn.setRequestProperty("Accept", "application/json");
+
+            if (conn.getResponseCode() != 200) {
+                // XXX bad. RestClient API needs to be redesigned
+                throw new IOException("Failed : HTTP error code : "
+                        + conn.getResponseCode());
+            }
+
+            conn.disconnect();
+
+        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
+            log.error("Malformed URL for GET request", e);
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            log.warn("Couldn't connect to the remote REST server", e);
+        }
+    }
+}