diff --git a/neutron/privileged/agent/linux/ip_lib.py b/neutron/privileged/agent/linux/ip_lib.py
index 4eae6577b6c..8eff37c6d3d 100644
--- a/neutron/privileged/agent/linux/ip_lib.py
+++ b/neutron/privileged/agent/linux/ip_lib.py
@@ -537,15 +537,24 @@ def make_serializable(value):
     This function converts 'netlink.nla_slot' object (key, value) in a list
     of two elements.
     """
+    def _ensure_string(value):
+        # NOTE(ralonsoh): once support for PY2 is dropped, the str()
+        # conversion will be no needed and six.binary_type --> bytes.
+        return (str(value.decode('utf-8'))
+                if isinstance(value, six.binary_type) else value)
+
     if isinstance(value, list):
         return [make_serializable(item) for item in value]
-    elif isinstance(value, dict):
-        return {key: make_serializable(data) for key, data in value.items()}
     elif isinstance(value, netlink.nla_slot):
         return [value[0], make_serializable(value[1])]
+    elif isinstance(value, netlink.nla_base) and six.PY3:
+        return make_serializable(value.dump())
+    elif isinstance(value, dict):
+        return {_ensure_string(key): make_serializable(data)
+                for key, data in value.items()}
     elif isinstance(value, tuple):
         return tuple(make_serializable(item) for item in value)
-    return value
+    return _ensure_string(value)
 
 
 @_sync
@@ -601,8 +610,9 @@ def list_ip_rules(namespace, ip_version, match=None, **kwargs):
     """List all IP rules"""
     try:
         with get_iproute(namespace) as ip:
-            rules = ip.get_rules(family=_IP_VERSION_FAMILY_MAP[ip_version],
-                                 match=match, **kwargs)
+            rules = make_serializable(ip.get_rules(
+                family=_IP_VERSION_FAMILY_MAP[ip_version],
+                match=match, **kwargs))
             for rule in rules:
                 rule['attrs'] = {
                     key: value for key, value
diff --git a/neutron/tests/unit/privileged/agent/linux/test_ip_lib.py b/neutron/tests/unit/privileged/agent/linux/test_ip_lib.py
index a4845dc16ef..2efb168051c 100644
--- a/neutron/tests/unit/privileged/agent/linux/test_ip_lib.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/unit/privileged/agent/linux/test_ip_lib.py
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ import errno
 
 import mock
 import pyroute2
+from pyroute2 import netlink
+from pyroute2.netlink.rtnl import ifinfmsg
 
 from neutron.privileged.agent.linux import ip_lib as priv_lib
 from neutron.tests import base
@@ -210,3 +212,18 @@ class IpLibTestCase(base.BaseTestCase):
                 self.fail("OSError exception not raised")
             except OSError as e:
                 self.assertEqual(errno.EINVAL, e.errno)
+
+
+class MakeSerializableTestCase(base.BaseTestCase):
+
+    NLA_DATA = ifinfmsg.ifinfbase.state(data=b'54321')
+    INPUT_1 = {'key1': 'value1', b'key2': b'value2', 'key3': ('a', 2),
+               'key4': [1, 2, 'c'],
+               'key5': netlink.nla_slot('nla_name', NLA_DATA)}
+    OUTPUT_1 = {'key1': 'value1', 'key2': 'value2', 'key3': ('a', 2),
+                'key4': [1, 2, 'c'],
+                'key5': ['nla_name', '54321']}
+
+    def test_make_serializable(self):
+        self.assertEqual(self.OUTPUT_1,
+                         priv_lib.make_serializable(self.INPUT_1))