diff --git a/io/IVersionedSerializer.java b/io/IVersionedSerializer.java
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/io/IVersionedSerializer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you 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.apache.cassandra.io;
+
+import java.io.DataInput;
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+import org.apache.cassandra.io.util.DataOutputPlus;
+
+public interface IVersionedSerializer<T>
+{
+    /**
+     * Serialize the specified type into the specified DataOutputStream instance.
+     *
+     * @param t type that needs to be serialized
+     * @param out DataOutput into which serialization needs to happen.
+     * @param version protocol version
+     * @throws java.io.IOException if serialization fails
+     */
+    public void serialize(T t, DataOutputPlus out, int version) throws IOException;
+
+    /**
+     * Deserialize into the specified DataInputStream instance.
+     * @param in DataInput from which deserialization needs to happen.
+     * @param version protocol version
+     * @return the type that was deserialized
+     * @throws IOException if deserialization fails
+     */
+    public T deserialize(DataInput in, int version) throws IOException;
+
+    /**
+     * Calculate serialized size of object without actually serializing.
+     * @param t object to calculate serialized size
+     * @param version protocol version
+     * @return serialized size of object t
+     */
+    public long serializedSize(T t, int version);
+}