diff --git a/emuvim/dcemulator/node.py b/emuvim/dcemulator/node.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b12751f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/emuvim/dcemulator/node.py
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+"""
+Distributed Cloud Emulator (dcemulator)
+(c) 2015 by Manuel Peuster <manuel.peuster@upb.de>
+"""
+import logging
+
+
+DCDPID_BASE = 1000  # start of switch dpid's used for data center switches
+
+
+class Datacenter(object):
+    """
+    Represents a logical data center to which compute resources
+    (Docker containers) can be added at runtime.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, name):
+        self.net = None  # DCNetwork to which we belong
+        self.name = name
+        self.switch = None  # first prototype assumes one "bigswitch" per DC
+
+    def _get_next_dc_dpid(self):
+        global DCDPID_BASE
+        DCDPID_BASE += 1
+        return DCDPID_BASE
+
+    def create(self):
+        """
+        Each data center is represented by a single switch to which
+        compute resources can be connected at run time.
+
+        TODO: This will be changes in the future to support multiple networks
+        per data center
+        """
+        self.switch = self.net.mnet.addSwitch(
+            "%s.s1" % self.name, dpid=hex(self._get_next_dc_dpid())[2:])
+        logging.debug("created data center switch: %s" % str(self.switch))
+
+    def start(self):
+        pass
+
+    def addCompute(self):
+        pass
+
+    def removeCompute(self):
+        pass