diff --git a/src/lib/macaddress.lua b/src/lib/macaddress.lua
index e55bdcfb3c..0508df17d6 100644
--- a/src/lib/macaddress.lua
+++ b/src/lib/macaddress.lua
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ function mac_mt:int ()
    return self.bits
 end
 
+function mac_mt:bytes ()
+   return self.bytes
+end
+
 function mac_mt:subbits (i,j)
    local b = bit.rshift(self.bits, i)
    local mask = bit.bnot(bit.lshift(0xffffffffffffLL, j-i))