diff --git a/kafka/utils.go b/kafka/utils.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..beac9f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kafka/utils.go
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2018-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 kafka
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+)
+
+const (
+	TopicSeparator = "_"
+	DeviceIdLength = 24
+)
+
+// A Topic definition - may be augmented with additional attributes eventually
+type Topic struct {
+	// The name of the topic. It must start with a letter,
+	// and contain only letters (`[A-Za-z]`), numbers (`[0-9]`), dashes (`-`),
+	// underscores (`_`), periods (`.`), tildes (`~`), plus (`+`) or percent
+	// signs (`%`).
+	Name string
+}
+
+type KVArg struct {
+	Key   string
+	Value interface{}
+}
+
+//CreateSubTopic concatenate a list of arguments together using underscores.
+func CreateSubTopic(args ...string) Topic {
+	topic := ""
+	for index, arg := range args {
+		if index == 0 {
+			topic = arg
+		} else {
+			topic = fmt.Sprintf("%s%s%s", topic, TopicSeparator, arg)
+		}
+	}
+	return Topic{Name: topic}
+}
+
+// GetDeviceIdFromTopic extract the deviceId from the topic name.  The topic name is formatted either as:
+//			<any string> or <any string>_<deviceId>.  The device Id is 24 characters long.
+func GetDeviceIdFromTopic(topic Topic) string {
+	pos := strings.LastIndex(topic.Name, TopicSeparator)
+	if pos == -1 {
+		return ""
+	}
+	adjustedPos := pos + len(TopicSeparator)
+	if adjustedPos >= len(topic.Name) {
+		return ""
+	}
+	deviceId := topic.Name[adjustedPos:len(topic.Name)]
+	if len(deviceId) != DeviceIdLength {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return deviceId
+}