Internet factories: Creating application-specific networks on-demand

We introduce the concept of Internet factories. Internet factories structure the task of creating and managing application-specific overlay networks using infrastructure-as-a-service clouds. We describe the Internet factory architecture and report on a proof of concept with three examples that progressively illustrate its working. In one of these examples, we demonstrate the creation of a 163-node IPv6 network over 18 cloud locations around the world. Internet factories include the use of libraries that capture years of experience and knowledge in network and systems engineering. Consequently, Internet factories solve the problem of creating and managing on-demand application-specific overlay networks without exposing all their intricacies to the application developer.