diff --git a/neutron/agent/linux/utils.py b/neutron/agent/linux/utils.py
index 30d6a206df3..bff3102b0bf 100644
--- a/neutron/agent/linux/utils.py
+++ b/neutron/agent/linux/utils.py
@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@ from eventlet import greenthread
 from oslo_config import cfg
 from oslo_log import log as logging
 from oslo_rootwrap import client
+from oslo_utils import encodeutils
 from oslo_utils import excutils
-import six
 from six.moves import http_client as httplib
 
 from neutron._i18n import _, _LE
@@ -104,11 +104,10 @@ def execute(cmd, process_input=None, addl_env=None,
             check_exit_code=True, return_stderr=False, log_fail_as_error=True,
             extra_ok_codes=None, run_as_root=False):
     try:
-        if (process_input is None or
-            isinstance(process_input, six.binary_type)):
-            _process_input = process_input
+        if process_input is not None:
+            _process_input = encodeutils.to_utf8(process_input)
         else:
-            _process_input = process_input.encode('utf-8')
+            _process_input = None
         if run_as_root and cfg.CONF.AGENT.root_helper_daemon:
             returncode, _stdout, _stderr = (
                 execute_rootwrap_daemon(cmd, process_input, addl_env))
@@ -153,8 +152,7 @@ def get_interface_mac(interface):
     MAC_END = 24
     s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
     dev = interface[:constants.DEVICE_NAME_MAX_LEN]
-    if isinstance(dev, six.text_type):
-        dev = dev.encode('utf-8')
+    dev = encodeutils.to_utf8(dev)
     info = fcntl.ioctl(s.fileno(), 0x8927, struct.pack('256s', dev))
     return ''.join(['%02x:' % ord(char)
                     for char in info[MAC_START:MAC_END]])[:-1]
diff --git a/neutron/agent/metadata/agent.py b/neutron/agent/metadata/agent.py
index 1f95cc3d7ab..db83093dcda 100644
--- a/neutron/agent/metadata/agent.py
+++ b/neutron/agent/metadata/agent.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ from oslo_config import cfg
 from oslo_log import log as logging
 import oslo_messaging
 from oslo_service import loopingcall
+from oslo_utils import encodeutils
 import six
 import six.moves.urllib.parse as urlparse
 import webob
@@ -223,10 +224,8 @@ class MetadataProxyHandler(object):
 
     def _sign_instance_id(self, instance_id):
         secret = self.conf.metadata_proxy_shared_secret
-        if isinstance(secret, six.text_type):
-            secret = secret.encode('utf-8')
-        if isinstance(instance_id, six.text_type):
-            instance_id = instance_id.encode('utf-8')
+        secret = encodeutils.to_utf8(secret)
+        instance_id = encodeutils.to_utf8(instance_id)
         return hmac.new(secret, instance_id, hashlib.sha256).hexdigest()
 
 
diff --git a/neutron/agent/windows/utils.py b/neutron/agent/windows/utils.py
index 115593ed06f..359966a73bf 100644
--- a/neutron/agent/windows/utils.py
+++ b/neutron/agent/windows/utils.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ import os
 from eventlet.green import subprocess
 from eventlet import greenthread
 from oslo_log import log as logging
-import six
+from oslo_utils import encodeutils
 
 from neutron._i18n import _
 from neutron.common import utils
@@ -50,11 +50,10 @@ def execute(cmd, process_input=None, addl_env=None,
             extra_ok_codes=None, run_as_root=False, do_decode=True):
 
     try:
-        if (process_input is None or
-            isinstance(process_input, six.binary_type)):
-            _process_input = process_input
+        if process_input is not None:
+            _process_input = encodeutils.to_utf8(process_input)
         else:
-            _process_input = process_input.encode('utf-8')
+            _process_input = None
         obj, cmd = create_process(cmd, addl_env=addl_env)
         _stdout, _stderr = obj.communicate(_process_input)
         obj.stdin.close()
diff --git a/neutron/plugins/common/utils.py b/neutron/plugins/common/utils.py
index 6e9d9016094..a9efcddffe8 100644
--- a/neutron/plugins/common/utils.py
+++ b/neutron/plugins/common/utils.py
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ import hashlib
 
 from oslo_config import cfg
 from oslo_log import log as logging
-import six
+from oslo_utils import encodeutils
 import webob.exc
 
 from neutron._i18n import _, _LI
@@ -180,10 +180,7 @@ def get_interface_name(name, prefix='', max_len=n_const.DEVICE_NAME_MAX_LEN):
                            "given length for an interface name."))
 
     namelen = max_len - len(prefix) - INTERFACE_HASH_LEN
-    if isinstance(name, six.text_type):
-        hashed_name = hashlib.sha1(name.encode('utf-8'))
-    else:
-        hashed_name = hashlib.sha1(name)
+    hashed_name = hashlib.sha1(encodeutils.to_utf8(name))
     new_name = ('%(prefix)s%(truncated)s%(hash)s' %
                 {'prefix': prefix, 'truncated': name[0:namelen],
                  'hash': hashed_name.hexdigest()[0:INTERFACE_HASH_LEN]})
diff --git a/neutron/tests/common/agents/ovs_agent.py b/neutron/tests/common/agents/ovs_agent.py
index a5c9c2514c0..e10632582db 100755
--- a/neutron/tests/common/agents/ovs_agent.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/common/agents/ovs_agent.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 import hashlib
 import sys
 
+from oslo_utils import encodeutils
 
 from neutron.cmd.eventlet.plugins.ovs_neutron_agent import main as _main
 from neutron.common import constants as n_const
@@ -30,10 +31,13 @@ def get_tunnel_name_full(cls, network_type, local_ip, remote_ip):
 
     # Remove length of network_type and two dashes
     hashlen = (n_const.DEVICE_NAME_MAX_LEN - len(network_type) - 2) // 2
-    remote_ip_hex = remote_ip_hex.encode('utf-8')
-    remote_ip_hash = hashlib.sha1(remote_ip_hex).hexdigest()[0:hashlen]
-    local_ip_hex = cls.get_ip_in_hex(local_ip).encode('utf-8')
-    source_ip_hash = hashlib.sha1(local_ip_hex).hexdigest()[0:hashlen]
+    remote_ip_hex = encodeutils.to_utf8(remote_ip_hex)
+    remote_ip_hash = hashlib.sha1(remote_ip_hex).hexdigest()[:hashlen]
+
+    local_ip_hex = cls.get_ip_in_hex(local_ip)
+    local_ip_hex = encodeutils.to_utf8(local_ip_hex)
+    source_ip_hash = hashlib.sha1(local_ip_hex).hexdigest()[:hashlen]
+
     return '%s-%s-%s' % (network_type, source_ip_hash, remote_ip_hash)
 
 OVSNeutronAgent.get_tunnel_name = get_tunnel_name_full
diff --git a/neutron/tests/functional/test_server.py b/neutron/tests/functional/test_server.py
index 5de52eefdc6..891bdf3276d 100644
--- a/neutron/tests/functional/test_server.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/functional/test_server.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ CONF = cfg.CONF
 
 # This message will be written to temporary file each time
 # start method is called.
-FAKE_START_MSG = "start".encode("utf-8")
+FAKE_START_MSG = b"start"
 
 TARGET_PLUGIN = 'neutron.plugins.ml2.plugin.Ml2Plugin'
 
diff --git a/neutron/tests/unit/agent/linux/test_utils.py b/neutron/tests/unit/agent/linux/test_utils.py
index 362c512b2af..ead21afba0d 100644
--- a/neutron/tests/unit/agent/linux/test_utils.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/unit/agent/linux/test_utils.py
@@ -135,12 +135,11 @@ class AgentUtilsExecuteTest(base.BaseTestCase):
             self.mock_popen.return_value = [bytes_odata, b'']
             result = utils.execute(['cat'], process_input=str_idata)
             self.mock_popen.assert_called_once_with(bytes_idata)
-            self.assertEqual(str_odata, result)
         else:
             self.mock_popen.return_value = [str_odata, '']
             result = utils.execute(['cat'], process_input=str_idata)
             self.mock_popen.assert_called_once_with(str_idata)
-            self.assertEqual(str_odata, result)
+        self.assertEqual(str_odata, result)
 
     def test_return_str_data(self):
         str_data = "%s\n" % self.test_file
diff --git a/neutron/tests/unit/api/test_extensions.py b/neutron/tests/unit/api/test_extensions.py
index c0ee4049509..3e1cc862817 100644
--- a/neutron/tests/unit/api/test_extensions.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/unit/api/test_extensions.py
@@ -529,7 +529,7 @@ class RequestExtensionTest(base.BaseTestCase):
         def extend_response_data(req, res):
             data = jsonutils.loads(res.body)
             data['FOXNSOX:extended_key'] = req.GET.get('extended_key')
-            res.body = jsonutils.dumps(data).encode('utf-8')
+            res.body = jsonutils.dump_as_bytes(data)
             return res
 
         app = self._setup_app_with_request_handler(extend_response_data, 'GET')
@@ -555,7 +555,7 @@ class RequestExtensionTest(base.BaseTestCase):
         def _update_handler(req, res):
             data = jsonutils.loads(res.body)
             data['uneditable'] = req.params['uneditable']
-            res.body = jsonutils.dumps(data).encode('utf-8')
+            res.body = jsonutils.dump_as_bytes(data)
             return res
 
         base_app = webtest.TestApp(setup_base_app(self))
diff --git a/neutron/tests/unit/extensions/foxinsocks.py b/neutron/tests/unit/extensions/foxinsocks.py
index d42f2b4942c..d77dc764c95 100644
--- a/neutron/tests/unit/extensions/foxinsocks.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/unit/extensions/foxinsocks.py
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ class Foxinsocks(extensions.ExtensionDescriptor):
             # You can use content type header to test for XML.
             data = jsonutils.loads(res.body)
             data['FOXNSOX:googoose'] = req.GET.get('chewing')
-            res.body = jsonutils.dumps(data).encode('utf-8')
+            res.body = jsonutils.dump_as_bytes(data)
             return res
 
         req_ext1 = extensions.RequestExtension('GET', '/dummy_resources/:(id)',
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ class Foxinsocks(extensions.ExtensionDescriptor):
             # You can use content type header to test for XML.
             data = jsonutils.loads(res.body)
             data['FOXNSOX:big_bands'] = 'Pig Bands!'
-            res.body = jsonutils.dumps(data).encode('utf-8')
+            res.body = jsonutils.dump_as_bytes(data)
             return res
 
         req_ext2 = extensions.RequestExtension('GET', '/dummy_resources/:(id)',
diff --git a/neutron/tests/unit/test_wsgi.py b/neutron/tests/unit/test_wsgi.py
index 73076224159..7d07aa18b42 100644
--- a/neutron/tests/unit/test_wsgi.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/unit/test_wsgi.py
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ class TestWSGIServer(base.BaseTestCase):
                     ])
 
     def test_app(self):
-        greetings = 'Hello, World!!!'
+        greetings = b'Hello, World!!!'
 
         def hello_world(env, start_response):
             if env['PATH_INFO'] != '/':
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ class TestWSGIServer(base.BaseTestCase):
 
         response = open_no_proxy('http://127.0.0.1:%d/' % server.port)
 
-        self.assertEqual(greetings.encode('utf-8'), response.read())
+        self.assertEqual(greetings, response.read())
 
         server.stop()
 
diff --git a/neutron/wsgi.py b/neutron/wsgi.py
index 9d3fcf01b4c..291d7d70790 100644
--- a/neutron/wsgi.py
+++ b/neutron/wsgi.py
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ from oslo_service import service as common_service
 from oslo_service import sslutils
 from oslo_service import systemd
 from oslo_service import wsgi
+from oslo_utils import encodeutils
 from oslo_utils import excutils
 import six
 import webob.dec
@@ -69,9 +70,7 @@ def encode_body(body):
 
     WebOb requires to encode unicode body used to update response body.
     """
-    if isinstance(body, six.text_type):
-        return body.encode('utf-8')
-    return body
+    return encodeutils.to_utf8(body)
 
 
 class WorkerService(worker.NeutronWorker):