US Patent 9998207 Orbital network layering in satellite platforms

Systems, methods, and software described herein provide enhancements for deploying communication networks in clusters of satellite devices. In one example, a first subset of satellite devices is configured to orbit in a first orbital layer, and a second subset of satellite devices is configured to orbit in a second orbital layer. A communication network is formed among the satellite devices and is configured to selectively exchange communications among the first orbital layer and the second orbital layer based at least in part on an operational status of the communication network.