diff --git a/src/name-component.hpp b/src/name-component.hpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c8ca77e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/name-component.hpp
@@ -0,0 +1,334 @@
+/* -*- Mode:C++; c-file-style:"gnu"; indent-tabs-mode:nil -*- */
+/**
+ * Copyright (C) 2013 Regents of the University of California.
+ * @author: Jeff Thompson <jefft0@remap.ucla.edu>
+ * @author: Alexander Afanasyev <alexander.afanasyev@ucla.edu>
+ * @author: Zhenkai Zhu <zhenkai@cs.ucla.edu>
+ * See COPYING for copyright and distribution information.
+ */
+
+#ifndef NDN_NAME_COMPONENT_HPP
+#define NDN_NAME_COMPONENT_HPP
+
+#include "common.hpp"
+#include "encoding/block.hpp"
+#include "encoding/encoding-buffer.hpp"
+
+namespace ndn {
+namespace name {
+
+/**
+ * A Name::Component holds a read-only name component value.
+ */
+class Component : public Block
+{
+public:
+  /// @brief Error that can be thrown from the block
+  struct Error : public std::runtime_error { Error(const std::string &what) : std::runtime_error(what) {} };
+  
+  /**
+   * Create a new Name::Component with a null value.
+   */
+  Component()
+    : Block(Tlv::NameComponent)
+  {    
+  }
+
+  // copy constructor OK
+  
+  /**
+   * Create a new Name::Component, taking another pointer to the Blob value.
+   * @param value A blob with a pointer to an immutable array.  The pointer is copied.
+   */
+  Component(const ConstBufferPtr &buffer)
+    : Block (Tlv::NameComponent, buffer)
+  {
+  }
+  
+  /**
+   * Create a new Name::Component, copying the given value.
+   * @param value The value byte array.
+   */
+  Component(const Buffer& value) 
+    : Block (Tlv::NameComponent, ConstBufferPtr(new Buffer(value)))
+  {
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Create a new Name::Component, copying the given value.
+   * @param value Pointer to the value byte array.
+   * @param valueLen Length of value.
+   */
+  Component(const uint8_t *value, size_t valueLen) 
+    : Block (Tlv::NameComponent, ConstBufferPtr(new Buffer(value, valueLen)))
+  {
+  }
+
+  template<class InputIterator>
+  Component(InputIterator begin, InputIterator end)
+    : Block (Tlv::NameComponent, ConstBufferPtr(new Buffer(begin, end)))
+  {
+  }
+    
+  Component(const char *string)
+    : Block (Tlv::NameComponent, ConstBufferPtr(new Buffer(string, ::strlen(string))))
+  {
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @brief Fast encoding or block size estimation
+   */
+  template<bool T>
+  size_t
+  wireEncode(EncodingImpl<T> &block) const;
+  
+  /**
+   * Make a Blob value by decoding the escapedString between beginOffset and endOffset according to the NDN URI Scheme.
+   * If the escaped string is "", "." or ".." then return a Blob with a null pointer, 
+   * which means the component should be skipped in a URI name.
+   * @param escapedString The escaped string.  It does not need to be null-terminated because we only scan to endOffset.
+   * @param beginOffset The offset in escapedString of the beginning of the portion to decode.
+   * @param endOffset The offset in escapedString of the end of the portion to decode.
+   * @return The Blob value. If the escapedString is not a valid escaped component, then the Blob is a null pointer.
+   */
+  static Component 
+  fromEscapedString(const char *escapedString, size_t beginOffset, size_t endOffset);
+
+  /**
+   * Make a Blob value by decoding the escapedString according to the NDN URI Scheme.
+   * If the escaped string is "", "." or ".." then return a Blob with a null pointer, 
+   * which means the component should be skipped in a URI name.
+   * @param escapedString The null-terminated escaped string.
+   * @return The Blob value. If the escapedString is not a valid escaped component, then the Blob is a null pointer.
+   */
+  static Component 
+  fromEscapedString(const char *escapedString)
+  {
+    return fromEscapedString(escapedString, 0, ::strlen(escapedString));
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Make a Blob value by decoding the escapedString according to the NDN URI Scheme.
+   * If the escaped string is "", "." or ".." then return a Blob with a null pointer, 
+   * which means the component should be skipped in a URI name.
+   * @param escapedString The escaped string.
+   * @return The Blob value. If the escapedString is not a valid escaped component, then the Blob is a null pointer.
+   */
+  static Component 
+  fromEscapedString(const std::string& escapedString)
+  {
+    return fromEscapedString(escapedString.c_str());
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Write the value to result, escaping characters according to the NDN URI Scheme.
+   * This also adds "..." to a value with zero or more ".".
+   * @param value the buffer with the value to escape
+   * @param result the string stream to write to.
+   */
+  void 
+  toEscapedString(std::ostream& result) const;
+  
+  /**
+   * Convert the value by escaping characters according to the NDN URI Scheme.
+   * This also adds "..." to a value with zero or more ".".
+   * @param value the buffer with the value to escape
+   * @return The escaped string.
+   */
+  inline std::string
+  toEscapedString() const
+  {
+    std::ostringstream result;
+    toEscapedString(result);
+    return result.str();
+  }
+    
+  /**
+   * Interpret this name component as a network-ordered number and return an integer.
+   * @return The integer number.
+   */
+  uint64_t
+  toNumber() const;
+
+  /**
+   * Interpret this name component as a network-ordered number with a marker and return an integer.
+   * @param marker The required first byte of the component.
+   * @return The integer number.
+   * @throw runtime_error If the first byte of the component does not equal the marker.
+   */
+  uint64_t
+  toNumberWithMarker(uint8_t marker) const;
+    
+  /**
+   * Interpret this name component as a segment number according to NDN name conventions (a network-ordered number 
+   * where the first byte is the marker 0x00).
+   * @return The integer segment number.
+   * @throw runtime_error If the first byte of the component is not the expected marker.
+   */
+  uint64_t
+  toSegment() const
+  {
+    return toNumberWithMarker(0x00);
+  }
+    
+  /**
+   * @deprecated Use toSegment.
+   */
+  uint64_t
+  toSeqNum() const
+  {
+    return toSegment();
+  }
+        
+  /**
+   * Interpret this name component as a version number according to NDN name conventions (a network-ordered number 
+   * where the first byte is the marker 0xFD).  Note that this returns the exact number from the component
+   * without converting it to a time representation.
+   * @return The integer segment number.
+   * @throw runtime_error If the first byte of the component is not the expected marker.
+   */
+  uint64_t
+  toVersion() const
+  {
+    return toNumberWithMarker(0xFD);
+  }
+    
+  /**
+   * Create a component whose value is the network-ordered encoding of the number.
+   * Note: if the number is zero, the result is empty.
+   * @param number The number to be encoded.
+   * @return The component value.
+   */
+  static Component 
+  fromNumber(uint64_t number);
+    
+  /**
+   * Create a component whose value is the marker appended with the network-ordered encoding of the number.
+   * Note: if the number is zero, no bytes are used for the number - the result will have only the marker.
+   * @param number The number to be encoded.  
+   * @param marker The marker to use as the first byte of the component.
+   * @return The component value.
+   */
+  static Component 
+  fromNumberWithMarker(uint64_t number, uint8_t marker);
+
+  /**
+   * Check if this is the same component as other.
+   * @param other The other Component to compare with.
+   * @return true if the components are equal, otherwise false.
+   */
+  bool
+  equals(const Component& other) const
+  {
+    if (value_size() != other.value_size())
+      return false;
+
+    return std::equal(value_begin(), value_end(), other.value_begin());
+  }
+
+  bool
+  empty() const
+  {
+    return !hasValue();
+  }
+    
+  /**
+   * Check if this is the same component as other.
+   * @param other The other Component to compare with.
+   * @return true if the components are equal, otherwise false.
+   */
+  bool
+  operator == (const Component& other) const { return equals(other); }
+
+  /**
+   * Check if this is not the same component as other.
+   * @param other The other Component to compare with.
+   * @return true if the components are not equal, otherwise false.
+   */
+  bool
+  operator != (const Component& other) const { return !equals(other); }
+    
+  /**
+   * Compare this to the other Component using NDN canonical ordering.
+   * @param other The other Component to compare with.
+   * @return 0 If they compare equal, -1 if *this comes before other in the canonical ordering, or
+   * 1 if *this comes after other in the canonical ordering.
+   *
+   * @see http://named-data.net/doc/0.2/technical/CanonicalOrder.html
+   */
+  int
+  compare(const Component& other) const;
+  
+  /**
+   * Return true if this is less than or equal to the other Component in the NDN canonical ordering.
+   * @param other The other Component to compare with.
+   *
+   * @see http://named-data.net/doc/0.2/technical/CanonicalOrder.html
+   */
+  bool
+  operator <= (const Component& other) const { return compare(other) <= 0; }
+  
+  /**
+   * Return true if this is less than the other Component in the NDN canonical ordering.
+   * @param other The other Component to compare with.
+   *
+   * @see http://named-data.net/doc/0.2/technical/CanonicalOrder.html
+   */
+  bool
+  operator < (const Component& other) const { return compare(other) < 0; }
+
+  /**
+   * Return true if this is less than or equal to the other Component in the NDN canonical ordering.
+   * @param other The other Component to compare with.
+   *
+   * @see http://named-data.net/doc/0.2/technical/CanonicalOrder.html
+   */
+  bool
+  operator >= (const Component& other) const { return compare(other) >= 0; }
+
+  /**
+   * Return true if this is greater than the other Component in the NDN canonical ordering.
+   * @param other The other Component to compare with.
+   *
+   * @see http://named-data.net/doc/0.2/technical/CanonicalOrder.html
+   */
+  bool
+  operator > (const Component& other) const { return compare(other) > 0; }
+
+  // 
+  // !!! MUST NOT INCLUDE ANY DATA HERE !!!
+  //
+  // This class is just a helper and is directly reinterpret_cast'ed from Block
+};
+
+inline std::ostream &
+operator << (std::ostream &os, const Component &component)
+{
+  component.toEscapedString(os);
+  return os;
+}
+
+template<bool T>
+inline size_t
+Component::wireEncode(EncodingImpl<T>& block) const
+{
+  size_t total_len = 0;
+  total_len += block.prependByteArray (value(), value_size());
+  total_len += block.prependVarNumber (value_size());
+  total_len += block.prependVarNumber (Tlv::NameComponent);
+  return total_len;
+}
+
+template
+size_t
+Component::wireEncode<true>(EncodingBuffer& block) const;
+
+template
+size_t
+Component::wireEncode<false>(EncodingEstimator& block) const;
+
+
+} // namespace name
+} // namespace ndn
+
+#endif // NDN_NAME_COMPONENT_HPP