Patent ID: 8279748

Claim:
A satellite networking system comprising: a plurality of satellite gateways in communication with a plurality of subscribers over one or more satellite communication networks, the plurality of satellite gateways configured to send network communications to the plurality of subscribers and receive network communications from the plurality of subscribers; a first core node in communication with at least one of the plurality of satellite gateways, the first core node configured to provide a plurality of networking services, at layer-2 (L2) of the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model, to a first subset of the plurality of subscribers; and a second core node in communication, at L2, with at least one of the plurality of satellite gateways and the first core node, the second core node configured to provide the plurality of networking services, at layer-2 of the OSI model, to a second subset of the plurality of subscribers, wherein in response to failure of at least one of the plurality of networking services in the first core node, the second core node providing the at least one of the plurality of networking services to the first subset of the plurality of subscribers.