diff --git a/neutron/agent/ovsdb/native/connection.py b/neutron/agent/ovsdb/native/connection.py
index d7d1c33d887..013e2e70045 100644
--- a/neutron/agent/ovsdb/native/connection.py
+++ b/neutron/agent/ovsdb/native/connection.py
@@ -53,13 +53,14 @@ class TransactionQueue(Queue.Queue, object):
 
 
 class Connection(object):
-    def __init__(self, connection, timeout, schema_name):
+    def __init__(self, connection, timeout, schema_name, idl_class=None):
         self.idl = None
         self.connection = connection
         self.timeout = timeout
         self.txns = TransactionQueue(1)
         self.lock = threading.Lock()
         self.schema_name = schema_name
+        self.idl_class = idl_class or idl.Idl
 
     def start(self, table_name_list=None):
         """
@@ -93,7 +94,7 @@ class Connection(object):
             else:
                 for table_name in table_name_list:
                     helper.register_table(table_name)
-            self.idl = idl.Idl(self.connection, helper)
+            self.idl = self.idl_class(self.connection, helper)
             idlutils.wait_for_change(self.idl, self.timeout)
             self.poller = poller.Poller()
             self.thread = threading.Thread(target=self.run)
diff --git a/neutron/tests/unit/agent/ovsdb/native/test_connection.py b/neutron/tests/unit/agent/ovsdb/native/test_connection.py
index 1d460bdbc5a..217d8cf997b 100644
--- a/neutron/tests/unit/agent/ovsdb/native/test_connection.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/unit/agent/ovsdb/native/test_connection.py
@@ -57,3 +57,15 @@ class TestOVSNativeConnection(base.BaseTestCase):
         # a test to cover py34 failure during initialization (LP Bug #1580270)
         # make sure no ValueError: can't have unbuffered text I/O is raised
         connection.TransactionQueue()
+
+    @mock.patch.object(connection, 'TransactionQueue')
+    @mock.patch.object(idlutils, 'get_schema_helper')
+    @mock.patch.object(idlutils, 'wait_for_change')
+    def test_start_with_idl_class(self, wait_for_change, get_schema_helper,
+                                  transaction_queue):
+        idl_class = mock.Mock()
+        self.connection = connection.Connection(
+            mock.sentinel, mock.sentinel, mock.sentinel, idl_class=idl_class)
+        idl_instance = idl_class.return_value
+        self.connection.start()
+        self.assertEqual(idl_instance, self.connection.idl)