diff --git a/include/asterisk/strings.h b/include/asterisk/strings.h
index 0b98a2bb07..79a2e49c8c 100644
--- a/include/asterisk/strings.h
+++ b/include/asterisk/strings.h
@@ -235,6 +235,66 @@ char *ast_strip(char *s),
  */
 char *ast_strip_quoted(char *s, const char *beg_quotes, const char *end_quotes);
 
+/*!
+  \brief Flags for ast_strsep
+ */
+enum ast_strsep_flags {
+	AST_STRSEP_STRIP =    0x01, /*!< Trim, then strip quotes.  You may want to trim again */
+	AST_STRSEP_TRIM =     0x02, /*!< Trim leading and trailing whitespace */
+	AST_STRSEP_UNESCAPE = 0x04, /*!< Unescape '\' */
+	AST_STRSEP_ALL =      0x07, /*!< Trim, strip, unescape */
+};
+
+/*!
+  \brief Act like strsep but ignore separators inside quotes.
+  \param s Pointer to address of the the string to be processed.
+  Will be modified and can't be constant.
+  \param sep A single character delimiter.
+  \param flags Controls post-processing of the result.
+  AST_STRSEP_TRIM trims all leading and trailing whitespace from the result.
+  AST_STRSEP_STRIP does a trim then strips the outermost quotes.  You may want
+  to trim again after the strip.  Just OR both the TRIM and STRIP flags.
+  AST_STRSEP_UNESCAPE unescapes '\' sequences.
+  AST_STRSEP_ALL does all of the above processing.
+  \return The next token or NULL if done or if there are more than 8 levels of
+  nested quotes.
+
+  This function acts like strsep with three exceptions...
+  The separator is a single character instead of a string.
+  Separators inside quotes are treated literally instead of like separators.
+  You can elect to have leading and trailing whitespace and quotes
+  stripped from the result and have '\' sequences unescaped.
+
+  Like strsep, ast_strsep maintains no internal state and you can call it
+  recursively using different separators on the same storage.
+
+  Also like strsep, for consistent results, consecutive separators are not
+  collapsed so you may get an empty string as a valid result.
+
+  Examples:
+  \code
+	char *mystr = ast_strdupa("abc=def,ghi='zzz=yyy,456',jkl");
+	char *token, *token2, *token3;
+
+	while((token = ast_strsep(&mystr, ',', AST_SEP_STRIP))) {
+		// 1st token will be aaa=def
+		// 2nd token will be ghi='zzz=yyy,456'
+		while((token2 = ast_strsep(&token, '=', AST_SEP_STRIP))) {
+			// 1st token2 will be ghi
+			// 2nd token2 will be zzz=yyy,456
+			while((token3 = ast_strsep(&token2, ',', AST_SEP_STRIP))) {
+				// 1st token3 will be zzz=yyy
+				// 2nd token3 will be 456
+				// and so on
+			}
+		}
+		// 3rd token will be jkl
+	}
+
+  \endcode
+ */
+char *ast_strsep(char **s, const char sep, uint32_t flags);
+
 /*!
   \brief Strip backslash for "escaped" semicolons, 
 	the string to be stripped (will be modified).
diff --git a/main/utils.c b/main/utils.c
index 229080b83d..40818c37ad 100644
--- a/main/utils.c
+++ b/main/utils.c
@@ -1473,6 +1473,66 @@ char *ast_strip_quoted(char *s, const char *beg_quotes, const char *end_quotes)
 	return s;
 }
 
+char *ast_strsep(char **iss, const char sep, uint32_t flags)
+{
+	char *st = *iss;
+	char *is;
+	int inquote = 0;
+	int found = 0;
+	char stack[8];
+
+	if (iss == NULL || *iss == '\0') {
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+	memset(stack, 0, sizeof(stack));
+
+	for(is = st; *is; is++) {
+		if (*is == '\\') {
+			if (*++is != '\0') {
+				is++;
+			} else {
+				break;
+			}
+		}
+
+		if (*is == '\'' || *is == '"') {
+			if (*is == stack[inquote]) {
+				stack[inquote--] = '\0';
+			} else {
+				if (++inquote >= sizeof(stack)) {
+					return NULL;
+				}
+				stack[inquote] = *is;
+			}
+		}
+
+		if (*is == sep && !inquote) {
+			*is = '\0';
+			found = 1;
+			*iss = is + 1;
+			break;
+		}
+	}
+	if (!found) {
+		*iss = NULL;
+	}
+
+	if (flags & AST_STRSEP_STRIP) {
+		st = ast_strip_quoted(st, "'\"", "'\"");
+	}
+
+	if (flags & AST_STRSEP_TRIM) {
+		st = ast_strip(st);
+	}
+
+	if (flags & AST_STRSEP_UNESCAPE) {
+		ast_unescape_quoted(st);
+	}
+
+	return st;
+}
+
 char *ast_unescape_semicolon(char *s)
 {
 	char *e;
diff --git a/tests/test_strings.c b/tests/test_strings.c
index 5e5a17d27b..127ee789d8 100644
--- a/tests/test_strings.c
+++ b/tests/test_strings.c
@@ -310,11 +310,90 @@ AST_TEST_DEFINE(ends_with_test)
 	return AST_TEST_PASS;
 }
 
+AST_TEST_DEFINE(strsep_test)
+{
+	char *test1, *test2, *test3;
+
+	switch (cmd) {
+	case TEST_INIT:
+		info->name = "strsep";
+		info->category = "/main/strings/";
+		info->summary = "Test ast_strsep";
+		info->description = "Test ast_strsep";
+		return AST_TEST_NOT_RUN;
+	case TEST_EXECUTE:
+		break;
+	}
+
+	test1 = ast_strdupa("ghi=jkl,mno='pqr,stu',abc=def, vwx = yz1 ,  vwx = yz1 ,  '"
+		" vwx = yz1 ' ,  ' vwx , yz1 ',v\"w\"x, '\"x,v\",\"x\"' , \" i\\'m a test\""
+		", \" i\\'m a, test\", \" i\\'m a, test\", e\\,nd, end\\");
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', 0);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("ghi=jkl", test2));
+
+	test3 = ast_strsep(&test2, '=', 0);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("ghi", test3));
+
+	test3 = ast_strsep(&test2, '=', 0);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("jkl", test3));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', 0);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("mno='pqr,stu'", test2));
+
+	test3 = ast_strsep(&test2, '=', 0);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("mno", test3));
+
+	test3 = ast_strsep(&test2, '=', 0);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("'pqr,stu'", test3));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', 0);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("abc=def", test2));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', 0);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp(" vwx = yz1 ", test2));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', AST_STRSEP_TRIM);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("vwx = yz1", test2));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', AST_STRSEP_STRIP);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp(" vwx = yz1 ", test2));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', AST_STRSEP_STRIP | AST_STRSEP_TRIM);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("vwx , yz1", test2));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', AST_STRSEP_STRIP | AST_STRSEP_TRIM);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("v\"w\"x", test2));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', AST_STRSEP_TRIM);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("'\"x,v\",\"x\"'", test2));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', AST_STRSEP_TRIM);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("\" i\\'m a test\"", test2));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', AST_STRSEP_TRIM | AST_STRSEP_UNESCAPE);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("\" i'm a, test\"", test2));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', AST_STRSEP_ALL);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("i'm a, test", test2));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', AST_STRSEP_TRIM | AST_STRSEP_UNESCAPE);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("e,nd", test2));
+
+	test2 = ast_strsep(&test1, ',', AST_STRSEP_TRIM | AST_STRSEP_UNESCAPE);
+	ast_test_validate(test, 0 == strcmp("end", test2));
+
+	// nothing failed; we're all good!
+	return AST_TEST_PASS;
+}
+
+
 static int unload_module(void)
 {
 	AST_TEST_UNREGISTER(str_test);
 	AST_TEST_UNREGISTER(begins_with_test);
 	AST_TEST_UNREGISTER(ends_with_test);
+	AST_TEST_UNREGISTER(strsep_test);
 	return 0;
 }
 
@@ -323,6 +402,7 @@ static int load_module(void)
 	AST_TEST_REGISTER(str_test);
 	AST_TEST_REGISTER(begins_with_test);
 	AST_TEST_REGISTER(ends_with_test);
+	AST_TEST_REGISTER(strsep_test);
 	return AST_MODULE_LOAD_SUCCESS;
 }