diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index 5ff1a42..dd31db8 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
 			 sockaddr_str.c \
 			 use_count.c \
 			 exec.c \
+			 it_q.c \
 			 $(NULL)
 
 if HAVE_SSSE3
diff --git a/src/it_q.c b/src/it_q.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1bb0e15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/it_q.c
@@ -0,0 +1,277 @@
+/*! \file it_q.c
+ * Osmocom Inter-Thread queue implementation */
+/* (C) 2019 by Harald Welte <laforge@gnumonks.org>
+ * All Rights Reserved.
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
+ *
+ *  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ *  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ *  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+ *  (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ *  GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ *  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ *  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+ *  Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston,
+ *  MA  02110-1301, USA.
+ */
+
+/*! \addtogroup it_q
+ *  @{
+ *  Inter-Thread Message Queue.
+ *
+ * This implements a general-purpose queue between threads. It uses
+ * user-provided data types (containing a llist_head as initial member)
+ * as elements in the queue and an eventfd-based notification mechanism.
+ * Hence, it can be used for pretty much anything, including but not
+ * limited to msgbs, including msgb-wrapped osmo_prim.
+ *
+ * The idea is that the sending thread simply calls osmo_it_q_enqueue().
+ * The receiving thread is woken up from its osmo_select_main() loop by eventfd,
+ * and a general osmo_fd callback function for the eventfd will dequeue each item
+ * and call a queue-specific callback function.
+ */
+
+#include "../config.h"
+
+#ifdef HAVE_SYS_EVENTFD_H
+
+#include <pthread.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <sys/eventfd.h>
+
+#include <osmocom/core/linuxlist.h>
+#include <osmocom/core/talloc.h>
+#include <osmocom/core/utils.h>
+#include <osmocom/core/it_q.h>
+
+/* "increment" the eventfd by specified 'inc' */
+static int eventfd_increment(int fd, uint64_t inc)
+{
+	int rc;
+
+	rc = write(fd, &inc, sizeof(inc));
+	if (rc != sizeof(inc))
+		return -1;
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/* global (for all threads) list of message queues in a program + associated lock */
+static LLIST_HEAD(it_queues);
+static pthread_rwlock_t it_queues_rwlock = PTHREAD_RWLOCK_INITIALIZER;
+
+/* resolve it-queue by its [globally unique] name; must be called with rwlock held */
+static struct osmo_it_q *_osmo_it_q_by_name(const char *name)
+{
+	struct osmo_it_q *q;
+	llist_for_each_entry(q, &it_queues, entry) {
+		if (!strcmp(q->name, name))
+			return q;
+	}
+	return NULL;
+}
+
+/*! resolve it-queue by its [globally unique] name */
+struct osmo_it_q *osmo_it_q_by_name(const char *name)
+{
+	struct osmo_it_q *q;
+	pthread_rwlock_rdlock(&it_queues_rwlock);
+	q = _osmo_it_q_by_name(name);
+	pthread_rwlock_unlock(&it_queues_rwlock);
+	return q;
+}
+
+/* osmo_fd call-back when eventfd is readable */
+static int osmo_it_q_fd_cb(struct osmo_fd *ofd, unsigned int what)
+{
+	struct osmo_it_q *q = (struct osmo_it_q *) ofd->data;
+	uint64_t val;
+	int i, rc;
+
+	if (!(what & OSMO_FD_READ))
+		return 0;
+
+	rc = read(ofd->fd, &val, sizeof(val));
+	if (rc < sizeof(val))
+		return rc;
+
+	for (i = 0; i < val; i++) {
+		struct llist_head *item = _osmo_it_q_dequeue(q);
+		/* in case the user might have called osmo_it_q_flush() we may
+		 * end up in the eventfd-dispatch but without any messages left in the queue,
+		 * otherwise I'd have loved to OSMO_ASSERT(msg) here. */
+		if (!item)
+			break;
+		q->read_cb(q, item);
+	}
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/*! Allocate a new inter-thread message queue.
+ *  \param[in] ctx talloc context from which to allocate the queue
+ *  \param[in] name human-readable string name of the queue; function creates a copy.
+ *  \param[in] read_cb call-back function to be called for each de-queued message; may be
+ *  			NULL in case you don't want eventfd/osmo_select integration and
+ *  			will manually take care of noticing if and when to dequeue.
+ *  \returns a newly-allocated inter-thread message queue; NULL in case of error */
+struct osmo_it_q *osmo_it_q_alloc(void *ctx, const char *name, unsigned int max_length,
+					void (*read_cb)(struct osmo_it_q *q, struct llist_head *item),
+					void *data)
+{
+	struct osmo_it_q *q;
+	int fd;
+
+	q = talloc_zero(ctx, struct osmo_it_q);
+	if (!q)
+		return NULL;
+	q->data = data;
+	q->name = talloc_strdup(q, name);
+	q->current_length = 0;
+	q->max_length = max_length;
+	q->read_cb = read_cb;
+	INIT_LLIST_HEAD(&q->list);
+	pthread_mutex_init(&q->mutex, NULL);
+	q->event_ofd.fd = -1;
+
+	if (q->read_cb) {
+		/* create eventfd *if* the user has provided a read_cb function */
+		fd = eventfd(0, 0);
+		if (fd < 0) {
+			talloc_free(q);
+			return NULL;
+		}
+
+		/* initialize BUT NOT REGISTER the osmo_fd. The receiving thread must
+		 * take are to select/poll/read/... on it */
+		osmo_fd_setup(&q->event_ofd, fd, OSMO_FD_READ, osmo_it_q_fd_cb, q, 0);
+	}
+
+	/* add to global list of queues, checking for duplicate names */
+	pthread_rwlock_wrlock(&it_queues_rwlock);
+	if (_osmo_it_q_by_name(q->name)) {
+		pthread_rwlock_unlock(&it_queues_rwlock);
+		if (q->event_ofd.fd >= 0)
+			osmo_fd_close(&q->event_ofd);
+		talloc_free(q);
+		return NULL;
+	}
+	llist_add_tail(&q->entry, &it_queues);
+	pthread_rwlock_unlock(&it_queues_rwlock);
+
+	return q;
+}
+
+static void *item_dequeue(struct llist_head *queue)
+{
+	struct llist_head *lh;
+
+	if (llist_empty(queue))
+		return NULL;
+
+	lh = queue->next;
+	if (lh) {
+		llist_del(lh);
+		return lh;
+	} else
+		return NULL;
+}
+
+/*! Flush all messages currently present in queue */
+static void _osmo_it_q_flush(struct osmo_it_q *q)
+{
+	void *item;
+	while ((item = item_dequeue(&q->list))) {
+		talloc_free(item);
+	}
+	q->current_length = 0;
+}
+
+/*! Flush all messages currently present in queue */
+void osmo_it_q_flush(struct osmo_it_q *q)
+{
+	OSMO_ASSERT(q);
+
+	pthread_mutex_lock(&q->mutex);
+	_osmo_it_q_flush(q);
+	pthread_mutex_unlock(&q->mutex);
+}
+
+/*! Destroy a message queue */
+void osmo_it_q_destroy(struct osmo_it_q *q)
+{
+	OSMO_ASSERT(q);
+
+	/* first remove from global list of queues */
+	pthread_rwlock_wrlock(&it_queues_rwlock);
+	llist_del(&q->entry);
+	pthread_rwlock_unlock(&it_queues_rwlock);
+	/* next, close the eventfd */
+	if (q->event_ofd.fd >= 0)
+		osmo_fd_close(&q->event_ofd);
+	/* flush all messages still present */
+	osmo_it_q_flush(q);
+	pthread_mutex_destroy(&q->mutex);
+	/* and finally release memory */
+	talloc_free(q);
+}
+
+/*! Thread-safe en-queue to an inter-thread message queue.
+ *  \param[in] queue Inter-thread queue on which to enqueue
+ *  \param[in] item Item to enqueue. Must have llist_head as first member!
+ *  \returns 0 on success; negative on error */
+int _osmo_it_q_enqueue(struct osmo_it_q *queue, struct llist_head *item)
+{
+	OSMO_ASSERT(queue);
+	OSMO_ASSERT(item);
+
+	pthread_mutex_lock(&queue->mutex);
+	if (queue->current_length+1 > queue->max_length) {
+		pthread_mutex_unlock(&queue->mutex);
+		return -ENOSPC;
+	}
+	llist_add_tail(item, &queue->list);
+	queue->current_length++;
+	pthread_mutex_unlock(&queue->mutex);
+	/* increment eventfd counter by one */
+	if (queue->event_ofd.fd >= 0)
+		eventfd_increment(queue->event_ofd.fd, 1);
+	return 0;
+}
+
+
+/*! Thread-safe de-queue from an inter-thread message queue.
+ *  \param[in] queue Inter-thread queue from which to dequeue
+ *  \returns dequeued message buffer; NULL if none available
+ */
+struct llist_head *_osmo_it_q_dequeue(struct osmo_it_q *queue)
+{
+	struct llist_head *l;
+	OSMO_ASSERT(queue);
+
+	pthread_mutex_lock(&queue->mutex);
+
+	if (llist_empty(&queue->list))
+		l = NULL;
+	l = queue->list.next;
+	OSMO_ASSERT(l);
+	llist_del(l);
+	queue->current_length--;
+
+	pthread_mutex_unlock(&queue->mutex);
+
+	return l;
+}
+
+
+#endif /* HAVE_SYS_EVENTFD_H */
+
+/*! @} */