diff --git a/include/dmlc/README.md b/include/dmlc/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..846cec006
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/dmlc/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+This folder is part of dmlc-core library, this allows rabit to use unified stream interface with other dmlc projects.
+
+- Since it is only interface dependency DMLC core is not required to compile rabit
+- To compile project that uses dmlc-core functions, link to libdmlc.a (provided by dmlc-core) will be required.
diff --git a/include/dmlc/io.h b/include/dmlc/io.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..41bfdf4a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/dmlc/io.h
@@ -0,0 +1,162 @@
+/*!
+ *  Copyright (c) 2015 by Contributors
+ * \file io.h
+ * \brief defines serializable interface of dmlc
+ */
+#ifndef DMLC_IO_H_
+#define DMLC_IO_H_
+#include <cstdio>
+#include <string>
+#include <vector>
+
+/*! \brief namespace for dmlc */
+namespace dmlc {
+/*!
+ * \brief interface of stream I/O for serialization
+ */
+class IStream {
+ public:
+  /*!
+   * \brief reads data from a stream
+   * \param ptr pointer to a memory buffer
+   * \param size block size
+   * \return the size of data read
+   */
+  virtual size_t Read(void *ptr, size_t size) = 0;
+  /*!
+   * \brief writes data to a stream
+   * \param ptr pointer to a memory buffer
+   * \param size block size
+   */
+  virtual void Write(const void *ptr, size_t size) = 0;
+  /*! \brief virtual destructor */
+  virtual ~IStream(void) {}
+  /*!
+   * \brief generic factory function
+   *    create an stream, the stream will close the underlying files
+   *    upon deletion
+   * \param uri the uri of the input currently we support
+   *            hdfs://, s3://, and file:// by default file:// will be used
+   * \param flag can be "w", "r", "a"
+   */
+  static IStream *Create(const char *uri, const char* const flag);
+  // helper functions to write/read different data structures
+  /*!
+   * \brief writes a vector
+   * \param vec vector to be written/serialized
+   */
+  template<typename T>
+  inline void Write(const std::vector<T> &vec);
+  /*!
+   * \brief loads a vector
+   * \param out_vec vector to be loaded/deserialized
+   * \return whether the load was successful
+   */
+  template<typename T>
+  inline bool Read(std::vector<T> *out_vec);
+  /*!
+   * \brief writes a string
+   * \param str the string to be written/serialized
+   */ 
+  inline void Write(const std::string &str);
+  /*!
+   * \brief loads a string
+   * \param out_str string to be loaded/deserialized
+   * \return whether the load/deserialization was successful
+   */
+  inline bool Read(std::string *out_str);
+};
+
+/*! \brief interface of i/o stream that support seek */
+class ISeekStream: public IStream {
+ public:
+  // virtual destructor
+  virtual ~ISeekStream(void) {}
+  /*! \brief seek to certain position of the file */
+  virtual void Seek(size_t pos) = 0;
+  /*! \brief tell the position of the stream */
+  virtual size_t Tell(void) = 0;
+  /*! \return whether we are at end of file */
+  virtual bool AtEnd(void) const = 0;  
+};
+
+/*! \brief interface for serializable objects */
+class ISerializable {
+ public:
+  /*! 
+  * \brief load the model from a stream
+  * \param fi stream where to load the model from
+  */
+  virtual void Load(IStream &fi) = 0;
+  /*! 
+  * \brief saves the model to a stream
+  * \param fo stream where to save the model to
+  */
+  virtual void Save(IStream &fo) const = 0;
+};
+
+/*!
+ * \brief input split header, used to create input split on input dataset
+ * this class can be used to obtain filesystem invariant splits from input files
+ */
+class InputSplit {
+ public:
+  /*!
+   * \brief read next line, store into out_data
+   * \param out_data the string that stores the line data, \n is not included
+   * \return true of next line was found, false if we read all the lines
+   */
+  virtual bool ReadLine(std::string *out_data) = 0;
+  /*! \brief destructor*/
+  virtual ~InputSplit(void) {}  
+  /*!
+   * \brief factory function:
+   *  create input split given a uri
+   * \param uri the uri of the input, can contain hdfs prefix
+   * \param part_index the part id of current input
+   * \param num_parts total number of splits
+   */
+  static InputSplit* Create(const char *uri,
+                            unsigned part_index,
+                            unsigned num_parts);
+};
+
+// implementations of inline functions
+template<typename T>
+inline void IStream::Write(const std::vector<T> &vec) {
+  size_t sz = vec.size();
+  this->Write(&sz, sizeof(sz));
+  if (sz != 0) {
+    this->Write(&vec[0], sizeof(T) * sz);
+  }
+}
+template<typename T>
+inline bool IStream::Read(std::vector<T> *out_vec) {
+  size_t sz;
+  if (this->Read(&sz, sizeof(sz)) == 0) return false;
+  out_vec->resize(sz);
+  if (sz != 0) {
+    if (this->Read(&(*out_vec)[0], sizeof(T) * sz) == 0) return false;
+  }
+  return true;
+}
+inline void IStream::Write(const std::string &str) {
+  size_t sz = str.length();
+  this->Write(&sz, sizeof(sz));
+  if (sz != 0) {
+    this->Write(&str[0], sizeof(char) * sz);
+  }
+}
+inline bool IStream::Read(std::string *out_str) {
+  size_t sz;
+  if (this->Read(&sz, sizeof(sz)) == 0) return false;
+  out_str->resize(sz);
+  if (sz != 0) {
+    if (this->Read(&(*out_str)[0], sizeof(char) * sz) == 0) {
+      return false;
+    }
+  }
+  return true;
+}
+}  // namespace dmlc
+#endif  // DMLC_IO_H_
diff --git a/include/rabit/io.h b/include/rabit/io.h
index eb1ca4414..4792d932c 100644
--- a/include/rabit/io.h
+++ b/include/rabit/io.h
@@ -16,19 +16,8 @@
 
 namespace rabit {
 namespace utils {
-/*! \brief interface of i/o stream that support seek */
-class ISeekStream: public IStream {
- public:
-  // virtual destructor
-  virtual ~ISeekStream(void) {}
-  /*! \brief seek to certain position of the file */
-  virtual void Seek(size_t pos) = 0;
-  /*! \brief tell the position of the stream */
-  virtual size_t Tell(void) = 0;
-  /*! \return whether we are at end of file */
-  virtual bool AtEnd(void) const = 0;
-};
-
+/*! \brief re-use definition of dmlc::ISeekStream */
+typedef dmlc::ISeekStream ISeekStream;
 /*! \brief fixed size memory buffer */
 struct MemoryFixSizeBuffer : public ISeekStream {
  public:
diff --git a/include/rabit_serializable.h b/include/rabit_serializable.h
index bee125ed8..7314747c0 100644
--- a/include/rabit_serializable.h
+++ b/include/rabit_serializable.h
@@ -9,98 +9,19 @@
 #include <vector>
 #include <string>
 #include "./rabit/utils.h"
+#include "./dmlc/io.h"
+
 namespace rabit {
 /*!
- * \brief interface of stream I/O, used by ISerializable
- * \sa ISerializable
+ * \brief defines stream used in rabit 
+ * see definition of IStream in dmlc/io.h 
  */
-class IStream {
- public:
-  /*!
-   * \brief reads data from a stream
-   * \param ptr pointer to a memory buffer
-   * \param size block size
-   * \return the size of data read
-   */
-  virtual size_t Read(void *ptr, size_t size) = 0;
-  /*!
-   * \brief writes data to a stream
-   * \param ptr pointer to a memory buffer
-   * \param size block size
-   */
-  virtual void Write(const void *ptr, size_t size) = 0;
-  /*! \brief virtual destructor */
-  virtual ~IStream(void) {}
+typedef dmlc::IStream IStream;
+/*!
+ * \brief defines serializable objects used in rabit 
+ * see definition of ISerializable in dmlc/io.h 
+ */
+typedef dmlc::ISerializable ISerializable;
 
- public:
-  // helper functions to write/read different data structures
-  /*!
-   * \brief writes a vector
-   * \param vec vector to be written/serialized
-   */
-  template<typename T>
-  inline void Write(const std::vector<T> &vec) {
-    uint64_t sz = static_cast<uint64_t>(vec.size());
-    this->Write(&sz, sizeof(sz));
-    if (sz != 0) {
-      this->Write(&vec[0], sizeof(T) * sz);
-    }
-  }
-  /*!
-   * \brief loads a vector
-   * \param out_vec vector to be loaded/deserialized
-   * \return whether the load was successful
-   */
-  template<typename T>
-  inline bool Read(std::vector<T> *out_vec) {
-    uint64_t sz;
-    if (this->Read(&sz, sizeof(sz)) == 0) return false;
-    out_vec->resize(sz);
-    if (sz != 0) {
-      if (this->Read(&(*out_vec)[0], sizeof(T) * sz) == 0) return false;
-    }
-    return true;
-  }
-  /*!
-   * \brief writes a string
-   * \param str the string to be written/serialized
-   */ 
-  inline void Write(const std::string &str) {
-    uint64_t sz = static_cast<uint64_t>(str.length());
-    this->Write(&sz, sizeof(sz));
-    if (sz != 0) {
-      this->Write(&str[0], sizeof(char) * sz);
-    }
-  }
-  /*!
-   * \brief loads a string
-   * \param out_str string to be loaded/deserialized
-   * \return whether the load/deserialization was successful
-   */
-  inline bool Read(std::string *out_str) {
-    uint64_t sz;
-    if (this->Read(&sz, sizeof(sz)) == 0) return false;
-    out_str->resize(sz);
-    if (sz != 0) {
-      if (this->Read(&(*out_str)[0], sizeof(char) * sz) == 0) return false;
-    }
-    return true;
-  }
-};
-
-/*! \brief interface for serializable objects */
-class ISerializable {
- public:
-  /*! 
-  * \brief load the model from a stream
-  * \param fi stream where to load the model from
-  */
-  virtual void Load(IStream &fi) = 0;
-  /*! 
-  * \brief saves the model to a stream
-  * \param fo stream where to save the model to
-  */
-  virtual void Save(IStream &fo) const = 0;
-};
 }  // namespace rabit
 #endif  // RABIT_RABIT_SERIALIZABLE_H_