diff --git a/doc/guides/prog_guide/env_abstraction_layer.rst b/doc/guides/prog_guide/env_abstraction_layer.rst
index 929d76d..1fd6ece 100644
--- a/doc/guides/prog_guide/env_abstraction_layer.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/prog_guide/env_abstraction_layer.rst
@@ -498,6 +498,28 @@ Those TLS include *_cpuset* and *_socket_id*:
 *	*_socket_id* stores the NUMA node of the CPU set. If the CPUs in CPU set belong to different NUMA node, the *_socket_id* will be set to SOCKET_ID_ANY.
 
 
+Control Thread API
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+It is possible to create Control Threads using the public API
+``rte_ctrl_thread_create()``.
+Those threads can be used for management/infrastructure tasks and are used
+internally by DPDK for multi process support and interrupt handling.
+
+Those threads will be scheduled on cpus part of the original process cpu
+affinity from which the dataplane and service lcores are excluded.
+
+For example, on a 8 cpus system, starting a dpdk application with -l 2,3
+(dataplane cores), then depending on the affinity configuration which can be
+controlled with tools like taskset (Linux) or cpuset (FreeBSD),
+
+- with no affinity configuration, the Control Threads will end up on
+  0-1,4-7 cpus.
+- with affinity restricted to 2-4, the Control Threads will end up on
+  cpu 4.
+- with affinity restricted to 2-3, the Control Threads will end up on
+  cpu 2 (master lcore, which is the default when no cpu is available).
+
 .. _known_issue_label:
 
 Known Issues
diff --git a/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_common_options.c b/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_common_options.c
index 1f45f82..f8b7ab9 100644
--- a/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_common_options.c
+++ b/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_common_options.c
@@ -217,6 +217,7 @@ struct device_option {
 	internal_cfg->create_uio_dev = 0;
 	internal_cfg->iova_mode = RTE_IOVA_DC;
 	internal_cfg->user_mbuf_pool_ops_name = NULL;
+	CPU_ZERO(&internal_cfg->ctrl_cpuset);
 	internal_cfg->init_complete = 0;
 }
 
@@ -1359,6 +1360,31 @@ static int xdigit2val(unsigned char c)
 	cfg->lcore_count -= removed;
 }
 
+static void
+compute_ctrl_threads_cpuset(struct internal_config *internal_cfg)
+{
+	rte_cpuset_t *cpuset = &internal_cfg->ctrl_cpuset;
+	rte_cpuset_t default_set;
+	unsigned int lcore_id;
+
+	for (lcore_id = 0; lcore_id < RTE_MAX_LCORE; lcore_id++) {
+		if (eal_cpu_detected(lcore_id) &&
+				rte_lcore_has_role(lcore_id, ROLE_OFF)) {
+			CPU_SET(lcore_id, cpuset);
+		}
+	}
+
+	if (pthread_getaffinity_np(pthread_self(), sizeof(rte_cpuset_t),
+				&default_set))
+		CPU_ZERO(&default_set);
+
+	RTE_CPU_AND(cpuset, cpuset, &default_set);
+
+	/* if no detected cpu is off, use master core */
+	if (!CPU_COUNT(cpuset))
+		CPU_SET(rte_get_master_lcore(), cpuset);
+}
+
 int
 eal_cleanup_config(struct internal_config *internal_cfg)
 {
@@ -1392,6 +1418,8 @@ static int xdigit2val(unsigned char c)
 		lcore_config[cfg->master_lcore].core_role = ROLE_RTE;
 	}
 
+	compute_ctrl_threads_cpuset(internal_cfg);
+
 	/* if no memory amounts were requested, this will result in 0 and
 	 * will be overridden later, right after eal_hugepage_info_init() */
 	for (i = 0; i < RTE_MAX_NUMA_NODES; i++)
diff --git a/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_common_thread.c b/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_common_thread.c
index a3985ce..14f206c 100644
--- a/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_common_thread.c
+++ b/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_common_thread.c
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 #include <rte_memory.h>
 #include <rte_log.h>
 
+#include "eal_internal_cfg.h"
 #include "eal_private.h"
 #include "eal_thread.h"
 
@@ -168,10 +169,9 @@ static void *rte_thread_init(void *arg)
 		const pthread_attr_t *attr,
 		void *(*start_routine)(void *), void *arg)
 {
+	rte_cpuset_t *cpuset = &internal_config.ctrl_cpuset;
 	struct rte_thread_ctrl_params *params;
-	unsigned int lcore_id;
-	rte_cpuset_t cpuset;
-	int cpu_found, ret;
+	int ret;
 
 	params = malloc(sizeof(*params));
 	if (!params)
@@ -195,20 +195,7 @@ static void *rte_thread_init(void *arg)
 				"Cannot set name for ctrl thread\n");
 	}
 
-	cpu_found = 0;
-	CPU_ZERO(&cpuset);
-	for (lcore_id = 0; lcore_id < RTE_MAX_LCORE; lcore_id++) {
-		if (eal_cpu_detected(lcore_id) &&
-				rte_lcore_has_role(lcore_id, ROLE_OFF)) {
-			CPU_SET(lcore_id, &cpuset);
-			cpu_found = 1;
-		}
-	}
-	/* if no detected cpu is off, use master core */
-	if (!cpu_found)
-		CPU_SET(rte_get_master_lcore(), &cpuset);
-
-	ret = pthread_setaffinity_np(*thread, sizeof(cpuset), &cpuset);
+	ret = pthread_setaffinity_np(*thread, sizeof(*cpuset), cpuset);
 	if (ret)
 		goto fail;
 
diff --git a/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_internal_cfg.h b/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_internal_cfg.h
index 60eaead..edff09d 100644
--- a/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_internal_cfg.h
+++ b/lib/librte_eal/common/eal_internal_cfg.h
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@
 #include <rte_eal.h>
 #include <rte_pci_dev_feature_defs.h>
 
+#include "eal_thread.h"
+
 #define MAX_HUGEPAGE_SIZES 3  /**< support up to 3 page sizes */
 
 /*
@@ -73,6 +75,7 @@ struct internal_config {
 	unsigned num_hugepage_sizes;      /**< how many sizes on this system */
 	struct hugepage_info hugepage_info[MAX_HUGEPAGE_SIZES];
 	enum rte_iova_mode iova_mode ;    /**< Set IOVA mode on this system  */
+	rte_cpuset_t ctrl_cpuset;         /**< cpuset for ctrl threads */
 	volatile unsigned int init_complete;
 	/**< indicates whether EAL has completed initialization */
 };
diff --git a/lib/librte_eal/common/include/rte_lcore.h b/lib/librte_eal/common/include/rte_lcore.h
index 6e09d91..eb49132 100644
--- a/lib/librte_eal/common/include/rte_lcore.h
+++ b/lib/librte_eal/common/include/rte_lcore.h
@@ -23,10 +23,18 @@
 #define LCORE_ID_ANY     UINT32_MAX       /**< Any lcore. */
 
 #if defined(__linux__)
-	typedef	cpu_set_t rte_cpuset_t;
+typedef	cpu_set_t rte_cpuset_t;
+#define RTE_CPU_AND(dst, src1, src2) CPU_AND(dst, src1, src2)
 #elif defined(__FreeBSD__)
 #include <pthread_np.h>
-	typedef cpuset_t rte_cpuset_t;
+typedef cpuset_t rte_cpuset_t;
+#define RTE_CPU_AND(dst, src1, src2) do \
+{ \
+	cpuset_t tmp; \
+	CPU_COPY(src1, &tmp); \
+	CPU_AND(&tmp, src2); \
+	CPU_COPY(&tmp, dst); \
+} while (0)
 #endif
 
 /**
@@ -280,8 +288,9 @@ struct lcore_config {
  * Create a control thread.
  *
  * Wrapper to pthread_create(), pthread_setname_np() and
- * pthread_setaffinity_np(). The dataplane and service lcores are
- * excluded from the affinity of the new thread.
+ * pthread_setaffinity_np(). The affinity of the new thread is based
+ * on the cpu affinity retrieved at the time rte_eal_init() was called,
+ * the dataplane and service lcores are then excluded.
  *
  * @param thread
  *   Filled with the thread id of the new created thread.
