diff --git a/neutron/plugins/bigswitch/servermanager.py b/neutron/plugins/bigswitch/servermanager.py
index 55eb05d3127..0818c8b4a2a 100644
--- a/neutron/plugins/bigswitch/servermanager.py
+++ b/neutron/plugins/bigswitch/servermanager.py
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ import httplib
 import os
 import socket
 import ssl
+import time
 import weakref
 
 import eventlet
@@ -73,6 +74,8 @@ ORCHESTRATION_SERVICE_ID = 'Neutron v2.0'
 HASH_MATCH_HEADER = 'X-BSN-BVS-HASH-MATCH'
 # error messages
 NXNETWORK = 'NXVNS'
+HTTP_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE_RETRY_COUNT = 3
+HTTP_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE_RETRY_INTERVAL = 3
 
 
 class RemoteRestError(exceptions.NeutronException):
@@ -428,10 +431,15 @@ class ServerPool(object):
         good_first = sorted(self.servers, key=lambda x: x.failed)
         first_response = None
         for active_server in good_first:
-            ret = active_server.rest_call(action, resource, data, headers,
-                                          timeout,
-                                          reconnect=self.always_reconnect,
-                                          hash_handler=hash_handler)
+            for x in range(HTTP_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE_RETRY_COUNT + 1):
+                ret = active_server.rest_call(action, resource, data, headers,
+                                              timeout,
+                                              reconnect=self.always_reconnect,
+                                              hash_handler=hash_handler)
+                if ret[0] != httplib.SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE:
+                    break
+                time.sleep(HTTP_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE_RETRY_INTERVAL)
+
             # If inconsistent, do a full synchronization
             if ret[0] == httplib.CONFLICT:
                 if not self.get_topo_function:
diff --git a/neutron/tests/unit/bigswitch/test_servermanager.py b/neutron/tests/unit/bigswitch/test_servermanager.py
index 0e51c258b0b..fd575abd176 100644
--- a/neutron/tests/unit/bigswitch/test_servermanager.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/unit/bigswitch/test_servermanager.py
@@ -374,6 +374,26 @@ class ServerManagerTests(test_rp.BigSwitchProxyPluginV2TestCase):
         self.assertFalse(pl.servers.server_failure((404,),
                                                    ignore_codes=[404]))
 
+    def test_retry_on_unavailable(self):
+        pl = manager.NeutronManager.get_plugin()
+        with contextlib.nested(
+            mock.patch(SERVERMANAGER + '.ServerProxy.rest_call',
+                       return_value=(httplib.SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE, 0, 0, 0)),
+            mock.patch(SERVERMANAGER + '.time.sleep')
+        ) as (srestmock, tmock):
+            # making a call should trigger retries with sleeps in between
+            pl.servers.rest_call('GET', '/', '', None, [])
+            rest_call = [mock.call('GET', '/', '', None, False, reconnect=True,
+                                   hash_handler=mock.ANY)]
+            rest_call_count = (
+                servermanager.HTTP_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE_RETRY_COUNT + 1)
+            srestmock.assert_has_calls(rest_call * rest_call_count)
+            sleep_call = [mock.call(
+                servermanager.HTTP_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE_RETRY_INTERVAL)]
+            # should sleep 1 less time than the number of calls
+            sleep_call_count = rest_call_count - 1
+            tmock.assert_has_calls(sleep_call * sleep_call_count)
+
     def test_conflict_triggers_sync(self):
         pl = manager.NeutronManager.get_plugin()
         with mock.patch(