I believe I described it badly or you misunderstood me then. What I was referring to in my mention of three-dimensionality is that the area in which all of them orbit isn't a single flat plane over a sphere shape. It's actually several flat planes layered on top of each other, with an obviously ever greater surface area the higher you go. Thus you have LEO, MEO and GEO satellites all sharing orbital space but at different heights so to speak. I'm aware that any given satellite generally flies along a fixed altitude (though as far as I know their latitude along that altitude can shift enormously)
I suppose each satellite has its orbit defined by the elliptical path (4 parameters). Like for GEO you can have many satellites in a single elliptical path.
You can also probably have different satellites on different ellipses whose paths intersect with each other, but the timing is such that they never collide.
I believe I described it badly or you misunderstood me then. What I was referring to in my mention of three-dimensionality is that the area in which all of them orbit isn't a single flat plane over a sphere shape. It's actually several flat planes layered on top of each other, with an obviously ever greater surface area the higher you go. Thus you have LEO, MEO and GEO satellites all sharing orbital space but at different heights so to speak. I'm aware that any given satellite generally flies along a fixed altitude (though as far as I know their latitude along that altitude can shift enormously)
I suppose each satellite has its orbit defined by the elliptical path (4 parameters). Like for GEO you can have many satellites in a single elliptical path.
You can also probably have different satellites on different ellipses whose paths intersect with each other, but the timing is such that they never collide.
I suppose it's quite complex in reality!