diff --git a/common/__init__.py b/common/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/__init__.py
diff --git a/common/utils/__init__.py b/common/utils/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/utils/__init__.py
diff --git a/common/utils/asleep.py b/common/utils/asleep.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e27d313
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/utils/asleep.py
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#
+# Copyright 2016 the original author or authors.
+#
+# 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.
+#
+
+""" Async sleep (asleep) method and other twisted goodies """
+
+from twisted.internet import reactor
+from twisted.internet.defer import Deferred
+
+
+def asleep(dt):
+    """
+    Async (event driven) wait for given time period (in seconds)
+    :param dt: Delay in seconds
+    :return: Deferred to be fired with value None when time expires.
+    """
+    d = Deferred()
+    reactor.callLater(dt, lambda: d.callback(None))
+    return d
diff --git a/common/utils/consulhelpers.py b/common/utils/consulhelpers.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91acfc6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/utils/consulhelpers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+#
+# Copyright 2016 the original author or authors.
+#
+# 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.
+#
+
+"""
+Some consul related convenience functions
+"""
+
+from structlog import get_logger
+from consul import Consul
+from random import randint
+
+log = get_logger()
+
+
+def get_endpoint_from_consul(consul_endpoint, service_name):
+    """Look up, from consul, the service name specified by service-name
+    """
+    log.debug('Retrieving endpoint {} from consul {}'.format(service_name,
+                                                             consul_endpoint))
+    host = consul_endpoint.split(':')[0].strip()
+    port = int(consul_endpoint.split(':')[1].strip())
+
+    consul = Consul(host=host, port=port)
+    _, services = consul.catalog.service(service_name)
+
+    if len(services) == 0:
+        raise Exception(
+            'Cannot find service {} in consul'.format(service_name))
+
+    # pick a random entry
+    # TODO should we prefer local IP addresses? Probably.
+
+    service = services[randint(0, len(services) - 1)]
+    endpoint = '{}:{}'.format(service['ServiceAddress'],
+                              service['ServicePort'])
+
+    return endpoint
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    get_endpoint_from_consul('10.100.198.220:8500', 'kafka')
diff --git a/common/utils/dockerhelpers.py b/common/utils/dockerhelpers.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0927711
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/utils/dockerhelpers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+#
+# Copyright 2016 the original author or authors.
+#
+# 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.
+#
+
+"""
+Some docker related convenience functions
+"""
+
+import os
+from structlog import get_logger
+
+from docker import Client
+
+
+log = get_logger()
+
+
+def get_my_containers_name():
+    """
+    Return the docker containers name in which this process is running.
+    To look up the container name, we use the container ID extracted from the
+    $HOSTNAME environment variable (which is set by docker conventions).
+    :return: String with the docker container name (or None if any issue is
+             encountered)
+    """
+    my_container_id = os.environ.get('HOSTNAME', None)
+
+    try:
+        docker_cli = Client(base_url='unix://tmp/docker.sock')
+        info = docker_cli.inspect_container(my_container_id)
+
+    except Exception, e:
+        log.exception('failed', my_container_id=my_container_id, e=e)
+        raise
+
+    name = info['Name'].lstrip('/')
+
+    return name
diff --git a/common/utils/message_queue.py b/common/utils/message_queue.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..74b763f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/utils/message_queue.py
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+#
+# Copyright 2016 the original author or authors.
+#
+# 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.
+#
+from twisted.internet.defer import Deferred
+from twisted.internet.defer import succeed
+
+
+class MessageQueue(object):
+    """
+    An event driven queue, similar to twisted.internet.defer.DeferredQueue
+    but which allows selective dequeing based on a predicate function.
+    Unlike DeferredQueue, there is no limit on backlog, and there is no queue
+    limit.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.waiting = []  # tuples of (d, predicate)
+        self.queue = []  # messages piling up here if no one is waiting
+
+    def reset(self):
+        """
+        Purge all content as well as waiters (by errback-ing their entries).
+        :return: None
+        """
+        for d, _ in self.waiting:
+            d.errback(Exception('mesage queue reset() was called'))
+        self.waiting = []
+        self.queue = []
+
+    def _cancelGet(self, d):
+        """
+        Remove a deferred from our waiting list.
+        :param d: The deferred that was been canceled.
+        :return: None
+        """
+        for i in range(len(self.waiting)):
+            if self.waiting[i][0] is d:
+                self.waiting.pop(i)
+
+    def put(self, obj):
+        """
+        Add an object to this queue
+        :param obj: arbitrary object that will be added to the queue
+        :return:
+        """
+
+        # if someone is waiting for this, return right away
+        for i in range(len(self.waiting)):
+            d, predicate = self.waiting[i]
+            if predicate is None or predicate(obj):
+                self.waiting.pop(i)
+                d.callback(obj)
+                return
+
+        # otherwise...
+        self.queue.append(obj)
+
+    def get(self, predicate=None):
+        """
+        Attempt to retrieve and remove an object from the queue that
+        matches the optional predicate.
+        :return: Deferred which fires with the next object available.
+        If predicate was provided, only objects for which
+        predicate(obj) is True will be considered.
+        """
+        for i in range(len(self.queue)):
+            msg = self.queue[i]
+            if predicate is None or predicate(msg):
+                self.queue.pop(i)
+                return succeed(msg)
+
+        # there were no matching entries if we got here, so we wait
+        d = Deferred(canceller=self._cancelGet)
+        self.waiting.append((d, predicate))
+        return d
+
+
diff --git a/common/utils/nethelpers.py b/common/utils/nethelpers.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52f7f4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/utils/nethelpers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+#
+# Copyright 2016 the original author or authors.
+#
+# 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.
+#
+
+"""
+Some network related convenience functions
+"""
+
+from netifaces import AF_INET
+
+import netifaces as ni
+
+
+def get_my_primary_interface():
+    gateways = ni.gateways()
+    assert 'default' in gateways, \
+        ("No default gateway on host/container, "
+         "cannot determine primary interface")
+    default_gw_index = gateways['default'].keys()[0]
+    # gateways[default_gw_index] has the format (example):
+    # [('10.15.32.1', 'en0', True)]
+    interface_name = gateways[default_gw_index][0][1]
+    return interface_name
+
+
+def get_my_primary_local_ipv4(ifname=None):
+    ifname = get_my_primary_interface() if ifname is None else ifname
+    addresses = ni.ifaddresses(ifname)
+    ipv4 = addresses[AF_INET][0]['addr']
+    return ipv4
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    print get_my_primary_local_ipv4()
diff --git a/common/utils/structlog_setup.py b/common/utils/structlog_setup.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d4b2e8e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/utils/structlog_setup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+#
+# Copyright 2016 the original author or authors.
+#
+# 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.
+#
+
+"""Setting up proper logging for Voltha"""
+
+import logging
+import logging.config
+from collections import OrderedDict
+
+import structlog
+from structlog.stdlib import BoundLogger, INFO
+
+try:
+    from thread import get_ident as _get_ident
+except ImportError:
+    from dummy_thread import get_ident as _get_ident
+
+
+class FluentRenderer(object):
+    def __call__(self, logger, name, event_dict):
+        # in order to keep structured log data in event_dict to be forwarded as
+        # is to the fluent logger, we need to pass it into the logger framework
+        # as the first positional argument.
+        args = (event_dict, )
+        kwargs = {}
+        return args, kwargs
+
+
+class PlainRenderedOrderedDict(OrderedDict):
+    """Our special version of OrderedDict that renders into string as a dict,
+       to make the log stream output cleaner.
+    """
+    def __repr__(self, _repr_running={}):
+        'od.__repr__() <==> repr(od)'
+        call_key = id(self), _get_ident()
+        if call_key in _repr_running:
+            return '...'
+        _repr_running[call_key] = 1
+        try:
+            if not self:
+                return '{}'
+            return '{%s}' % ", ".join("%s: %s" % (k, v)
+                                      for k, v in self.items())
+        finally:
+            del _repr_running[call_key]
+
+
+def setup_logging(log_config, instance_id, verbosity_adjust=0, fluentd=None):
+    """
+    Set up logging such that:
+    - The primary logging entry method is structlog
+      (see http://structlog.readthedocs.io/en/stable/index.html)
+    - By default, the logging backend is Python standard lib logger
+    - Alternatively, fluentd can be configured with to be the backend,
+      providing direct bridge to a fluent logging agent.
+    """
+
+    def add_exc_info_flag_for_exception(_, name, event_dict):
+        if name == 'exception':
+            event_dict['exc_info'] = True
+        return event_dict
+
+    def add_instance_id(_, __, event_dict):
+        event_dict['instance_id'] = instance_id
+        return event_dict
+
+    # if fluentd is specified, we need to override the config data with
+    # its host and port info
+    if fluentd is not None:
+        fluentd_host = fluentd.split(':')[0].strip()
+        fluentd_port = int(fluentd.split(':')[1].strip())
+
+        handlers = log_config.get('handlers', None)
+        if isinstance(handlers, dict):
+            for _, defs in handlers.iteritems():
+                if isinstance(defs, dict):
+                    if defs.get('class', '').endswith('FluentHandler'):
+                        defs['host'] = fluentd_host
+                        defs['port'] = fluentd_port
+
+    # Configure standard logging
+    logging.config.dictConfig(log_config)
+    logging.root.level -= 10 * verbosity_adjust
+
+    processors = [
+        add_exc_info_flag_for_exception,
+        structlog.processors.StackInfoRenderer(),
+        structlog.processors.format_exc_info,
+        add_instance_id,
+        FluentRenderer(),
+    ]
+    structlog.configure(logger_factory=structlog.stdlib.LoggerFactory(),
+                        context_class=PlainRenderedOrderedDict,
+                        wrapper_class=BoundLogger,
+                        processors=processors)
+
+    # Mark first line of log
+    log = structlog.get_logger()
+    log.info("first-line")
+    return log