diff --git a/voltha/core/protos/voltha.proto b/voltha/core/protos/voltha.proto
index a639002..647e4f0 100644
--- a/voltha/core/protos/voltha.proto
+++ b/voltha/core/protos/voltha.proto
@@ -28,6 +28,14 @@
 
 }
 
+// A more complex message type for testing purposes
+message MoreComplex {
+  HealthStatus health = 1; // Embedded health
+  int32 foo_counter = 2; // Counting foos
+  string name = 3;  // Name of this thing
+  repeated MoreComplex children = 4;  // Nested object to test recursion type
+}
+
 service HealthService {
 
   // Return current health status of a Voltha instance
diff --git a/voltha/northbound/grpc/grpc_introspect.py b/voltha/northbound/grpc/grpc_introspect.py
index 554a39b..f0a6877 100755
--- a/voltha/northbound/grpc/grpc_introspect.py
+++ b/voltha/northbound/grpc/grpc_introspect.py
@@ -157,16 +157,34 @@
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
-    # load desc into binary string
-    from voltha.core.protos import voltha_pb2
 
+    # try loading voltha descriptor and turn it into JSON data as a preparation
+    # for generating JSON Schema / swagger file (to be done later)
+    from voltha.core.protos import voltha_pb2
     desc_dir = os.path.dirname(inspect.getfile(voltha_pb2))
     desc_file = os.path.join(desc_dir, 'voltha.desc')
     with open(desc_file, 'rb') as f:
         descriptor_blob = f.read()
-
     parser = DescriptorParser()
     parser.load_descriptor(descriptor_blob)
     print dumps(parser.get_catalog(), indent=4)
 
+    # try to see if we can decode binary data into JSON automatically
+    def make_mc(name):
+        mc = voltha_pb2.MoreComplex()
+        mc.name = name
+        mc.foo_counter = 123123123
+        # mc.health = voltha_pb2.HealthStatus()
+        mc.health.state = voltha_pb2.HealthStatus.HEALTHY
+        return mc
 
+    mc = make_mc('root')
+    child1 = mc.
+    print dir(mc)
+    blob = mc.SerializeToString()
+    print len(blob), 'bytes'
+    mc2 = voltha_pb2.MoreComplex()
+    mc2.ParseFromString(blob)
+    assert mc == mc2
+
+    print dumps(parser.parse(mc), indent=4)