The modeling of realistic networks is of great importance for modern complex systems research. Previous procedures typically model the natural growth of networks by means of iteratively adding nodes, geometric positioning information, a definition of link connectivity based on the preference for nearest neighbors or already highly connected nodes, or combine several of these approaches. Our novel model is based on the well-know concept of k-cores, originally introduced in social network analysis. Recent studies exposed the significant k-core structure of several real world systems, e.g. the AS network of the Internet. We present a simple and efficient method for generating networks which strictly adhere to the characteristics of a given k-core structure, called core fingerprint. We show-case our algorithm in a comparative evaluation with two well-known AS network generators.
