Witch property determine the layer in LayeredDigraphLayout?

“The layering satisfies the following relationship: if L is a link from node U to node V, then U.layer > V.layer” is metioned in method “assignLayers”. But I found the layer object in node is sort of related to control for Z-ordering Parts. We need to customize the node layer. Which property determines the layer in LayeredDigraphLayout?

If there is no link between two nodes, how can I assign these two nodes in different layer?