The StarKeith Communications Network, or "ComNet" as it is more commonly known, is the term used for the vast array of communications satellites spread throughout Federation space.

Originally called the Federation ComNet, authority for this network was handed over to StarKeith along with all the other interplanetary objects, including spacecraft and space stations. This network was created to allow audio and video communications between space vessels, space stations, and planetary colonies throughout Federation space.

During the early years of Federation space exploration, spaceships had limited computer and communications capability. Often, the power requirements of a long-range subspace or hyperspace transmitter were too great to be sustained by these early ships. Even today, the range between a ship and the nearest colony or space station is often well beyond the operational range of onboard communications equipment. Hence, the ComNet.

The ComNet can be compared to the cellular telephone networks used on the planet Earth, although instead of utilizing radio signals, the voice and video streams are beamed across space using focused subspace (or hyperspace) transmissions. These transmissions can travel at speeds greater than light, which allows for communications across great distances without the inherent time lag of regular electromagnetic transmissions.

The ComNet utilizes broadcast addressing for all nodes. This relieves the relay nodes of the overhead of assigning unique IDs to all end nodes. The process of communicating between nodes on the ComNet follows a procedure similar to this:

• The source of the transmission signals the network which ship/station/planet it wishes to contact.
• The relay node closest to the source determines if the destination is one of its immediate neighbors (1 hop). If it is not, the node transmits the request to all known nodes. This process repeats until the request reaches a relay node which knows of the destination. As the request travels along the network, it keeps a record of what "path" it has used. Also, as each node passes the request onto its neighbor nodes, it "forgets" of the request, which prevents the network from becoming clogged with requests which are bouncing around the network, searching for a destination.
• Once the request has reached a node which "knows" of the destination (this may be because the node is 1 hop away from the destination, or because the node is one of a relatively small number of "supernodes" which are used in the core of the Federation; these nodes are "smarter" than the regular nodes and can direct the request directly to its destination), the request is passed to the destination.
• The destination then responds directly to the source, using the "path" information in the request.
• Once the destination has responded to the source, the communications channel is considered "open" and communications can begin. The network does not keep any control over the communications session; this is handled by the communications devices on either end. The network simply provides the data path for the transmission. If one end of the transmission looses contact with the network, it is up to the communications device on the remaining end to detect the loss of signal and notify the user. The network has no built-in capability for this function.

The ComNet functions in this way because of the fact that ships in space may move out of the range of a particular relay node during the course of a transmission. Since each node (ship/station/planet) is responsible for "broadcasting" its location to the nearest node, when a ship moves out of range of a relay node, it simply "logs on" to the next available node, and re-establishes the link (usually without interrupting the transmission at all).

The ComNet has advantages in the sense that it is a "stupid" network. It has very little "intelligence" built into it, and thus can be extended very easily, and very inexpensively. Additional relay nodes can be added as needed to reach outlying outposts, without requiring an update to the routing tables on all other relay nodes.

Although the ComNet is still in use today, it has partially been superceded by the StarKeith InfoNet, which uses an addressing and relaying scheme similar to the "Internet," as found on the planet Earth.