diff --git a/src/opnsense/mvc/app/library/OPNsense/Routing/Gateways.php b/src/opnsense/mvc/app/library/OPNsense/Routing/Gateways.php
index fe56d7e53..07c267f94 100644
--- a/src/opnsense/mvc/app/library/OPNsense/Routing/Gateways.php
+++ b/src/opnsense/mvc/app/library/OPNsense/Routing/Gateways.php
@@ -377,4 +377,118 @@ class Gateways
         }
         return null;
     }
+
+    /**
+     * get gateway groups and active
+     * @param array $status_info gateway status info (from dpinger)
+     * @return array usable gateway groups
+     */
+    public function getGroups($status_info)
+    {
+          $all_gateways = $this->gatewaysIndexedByName();
+          $result = array();
+          if (isset($this->configHandle->gateways)) {
+              foreach ($this->configHandle->gateways->children() as $tag => $gw_group) {
+                  if ($tag == "gateway_group") {
+                      $tiers = array();
+                      if (isset($gw_group->item)) {
+                          foreach ($gw_group->item as $item) {
+                              list($gw, $tier) = explode("|", $item);
+                              if (!isset($tiers[$tier])) {
+                                  $tiers[$tier] =  array();
+                              }
+                              $tiers[$tier][] = $gw;
+                          }
+                      }
+                      ksort($tiers);
+                      $all_tiers =  array();
+                      foreach ($tiers as $tieridx => $tier) {
+                          $all_tiers[$tieridx] = array();
+                          if (!isset($result[(string)$gw_group->name])) {
+                              $result[(string)$gw_group->name] = array();
+                          }
+                          // check status for all gateways in this tier
+                          foreach ($tier as $gwname) {
+                              if (!empty($all_gateways[$gwname]['gateway']) && !empty($status_info[$gwname])) {
+                                  $gateway = $all_gateways[$gwname];
+                                  switch ($status_info[$gwname]['status']) {
+                                      case 'down':
+                                      case 'force_down':
+                                          $is_up = false;
+                                          break;
+                                      case 'delay':
+                                          $is_up = stristr($gw_group->trigger, 'latency') === false;
+                                          break;
+                                      case 'loss':
+                                          $is_up = stristr($gw_group->trigger, 'loss') === false;
+                                          break;
+                                      default:
+                                          $is_up = true;
+                                  }
+                                  $gateway_item = [
+                                      'int' => $gateway['if'],
+                                      'gwip' => $gateway['gateway'],
+                                      'weight' => !empty($gateway['weight']) ? $gateway['weight'] : 1
+                                  ];
+                                  $all_tiers[$tieridx][] = $gateway_item;
+                                  if ($is_up) {
+                                      $result[(string)$gw_group->name][] = $gateway_item;
+                                  }
+                              }
+                          }
+                          // exit when tier has (a) usuable gateway(s)
+                          if (!empty($result[(string)$gw_group->name])) {
+                              break;
+                          }
+                      }
+                      // XXX: backwards compatibility, when no tiers are up, we seem to select all from the first
+                      //      found tier. not very useful, since we already seem to know these are down.
+                      if (empty($result[(string)$gw_group->name])) {
+                          $result[(string)$gw_group->name] = $all_tiers[array_keys($tiers)[0]];
+                      }
+                  }
+              }
+          }
+          return $result;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * return gateway groups (only names)
+     * @return array list of names
+     */
+    public function getGroupNames()
+    {
+        $result = array();
+        if (isset($this->configHandle->gateways)) {
+            foreach ($this->configHandle->gateways->children() as $tag => $gw_group) {
+                if ($tag == "gateway_group") {
+                    $result[] = (string)$gw_group->name;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        return $result;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * return protocol family
+     * @param string $name gateway group name
+     * @return string ipprotocol family (inet, inet6, null when not found)
+     */
+    public function getGroupIPProto($name)
+    {
+        if (isset($this->configHandle->gateways)) {
+            foreach ($this->configHandle->gateways->children() as $tag => $gw_group) {
+                if ($tag == "gateway_group" && (string)$gw_group->name == $name) {
+                    $all_gateways = $this->gatewaysIndexedByName();
+                    foreach ($gw_group->item as $item) {
+                        $gw = explode("|", $item)[0];
+                        if (!empty($all_gateways[$gw])) {
+                            return $all_gateways[$gw]['ipprotocol'];
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        return null;
+    }
 }