  Virtualized network services consisting of multiple individual network
functions are already today deployed across multiple sites, so called multi-PoP
(points of presence) environ- ments. This allows to improve service performance
by optimizing its placement in the network. But prototyping and testing of
these complex distributed software systems becomes extremely challenging. The
reason is that not only the network service as such has to be tested but also
its integration with management and orchestration systems. Existing solutions,
like simulators, basic network emulators, or local cloud testbeds, do not
support all aspects of these tasks. To this end, we introduce MeDICINE, a novel
NFV prototyping platform that is able to execute production-ready network func-
tions, provided as software containers, in an emulated multi-PoP environment.
These network functions can be controlled by any third-party management and
orchestration system that connects to our platform through standard interfaces.
Based on this, a developer can use our platform to prototype and test complex
network services in a realistic environment running on his laptop.
