Time-of-flight based cover detection for network devices
Presented herein is an apparatus including: a network device housing including a slot configured to receive a network device module; a time-of-flight sensor including an emitter and a receiver, wherein the time-of-flight sensor is arranged within the network device housing such that the emitter and the receiver have line-of-sight to a location relative to the network device housing at which a cover for the slot is arranged; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the time-of-flight sensor. Also presented herein is a method including: obtaining, from a time-of-flight sensor arranged within a slot of a network device housing, time-of-flight sensor data; determining a distance between the time-of-flight sensor and a target based upon the time-of-flight sensor data; and determining, based upon the distance, that a cover is covering the slot or that the cover is not covering the slot.
1 . An apparatus comprising:
a network router housing comprising a first slot to receive a first network device module and a second slot adjacent to the first slot and configured to receive a second network device module;
a printed circuit board of the first network device module, wherein the printed circuit board is arranged across the first slot and the second slot;
a first time-of-flight sensor and a second time-of-flight sensor respectively configured on the printed circuit board in the first slot and the second slot, each time-of-flight sensor respectively comprising an emitter and a receiver arranged to have line-of-sight to a location at which a cover of a respective slot is arranged; and
one or more processors communicatively coupled to each time-of-flight sensor and configured to:
obtain time-of-flight sensor data from a time-of-flight sensor of the first time-of-flight sensor and the second time-of-flight sensor; and
determine, based upon the time-of-flight sensor data, that the cover is covering the respective slot or that the cover is not covering the respective slot for the time-of-flight sensor.
2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first network device module and the second network device module are each selected from a group consisting of a fifth generation broadband cellular network (5G) module, an advanced Long-Term-Evolution (LTE) module, local area network (LAN) module, and a wide area network (WAN) module.
3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine that the cover is covering the respective slot or that the cover is not covering the respective slot by:
determining, from the time-of-flight sensor data, a distance between the time-of-flight sensor and a target that reflects light emitted by the emitter back to the receiver; and
comparing the distance between the time-of-flight sensor and the target to one or more threshold values indicative of the cover covering the respective slot or indicative of the cover not covering the respective slot.
4 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein:
the time-of-flight sensor data comprises data indicative of a signal emitted by the emitter not being received at the receiver; and
the one or more processors are configured to determine that the cover is not covering the respective slot in response to obtaining the data indicative of the signal emitted by the emitter and not being received at the receiver.
5 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the time-of-flight sensor data comprises data indicative of a time between when a signal is emitted from the emitter towards the location relative to the network router housing and when the signal is received by the receiver.
6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the emitter comprises a laser diode and the receiver comprises a photodetector diode.
7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the emitter is configured to emit infrared laser light and the receiver is configured to detect the infrared laser light.
8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first network device module comprises a router.
9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the network router housing comprises an industrial Internet-of-Things router housing.
10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cover is configured to provide ingress protection to the respective slot.
11 . A method comprising:
providing a network router housing comprising a first slot to receive a first network device module and a second slot adjacent to the first slot and configured to receive a second network device module;
providing a printed circuit board of the first network device module, wherein the printed circuit board is arranged across the first slot and the second slot;
providing a first time-of-flight sensor and a second time-of-flight sensor respectively configured on the printed circuit board in the first slot and the second slot, each time-of-flight sensor respectively comprising an emitter and a receiver having line-of-sight to a location at which a cover of a respective slot is arranged;
obtaining, from a time-of-flight sensor of the first time-of-flight sensor and the second time-of-flight sensor, time-of-flight sensor data;
determining a distance between the time-of-flight sensor and a target based upon the time-of-flight sensor data; and
determining, based upon the distance, that the cover is covering the respective slot or that the cover is not covering the respective slot for the time-of-flight sensor.
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein determining that the cover is covering the respective slot or that the cover is not covering the respective slot comprises:
determining, from the time-of-flight sensor data, the distance between the time-of-flight sensor and the target that reflects a signal emitted by the emitter of the time-of-flight sensor back to the receiver of the time-of-flight sensor; and
comparing the distance between the time-of-flight sensor and the target to one or more threshold values indicative of the cover covering the respective slot or indicative of the cover not covering the respective slot.
13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the time-of-flight sensor data comprises data that indicates that a signal emitted by the emitter of the time-of-flight sensor was not received at the receiver of the time-of-flight sensor,
the method further comprising determining that the cover is not covering the respective slot in response to obtaining the data that indicates that the signal emitted by the emitter of the time-of-flight sensor was not received at the receiver of the time-of-flight sensor.
14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the time-of-flight sensor data comprises data indicative of a time between when a signal is emitted from the emitter of the time-of-flight sensor towards the location relative to the network router housing at which the cover for the respective slot is arranged and when the signal is received by the receiver of the time-of-flight sensor.
15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the network router housing comprises an industrial Internet-of-Things router housing.
16 . One or more tangible, non-transitory computer readable mediums encoded with instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by one or more processors in a network router housing that comprises a first slot to receive a first network device module and a second slot adjacent to the first slot and configured to receive a second network device module, a printed circuit board of the first network device module, wherein the printed circuit board is arranged across the first slot and the second slot, a first time-of-flight sensor and a second time-of-flight sensor respectively configured on the printed circuit board in the first slot and the second slot, each of the first time-of-flight sensor and second time-of-flight sensor respectively comprising an emitter and a receiver having line-of-sight to a location at which a cover for a respective slot is arranged, are operable to:
obtain, from a time-of-flight sensor of the first time-of-flight sensor and the second time-of-flight sensor, time-of-flight sensor data;
determine a distance between the time-of-flight sensor and a target based upon the time-of-flight sensor data; and
determine, based upon the distance, that the cover is covering the respective slot or that the cover is not covering the respective slot for the time-of-flight sensor.
17 . The one or more tangible, non-transitory computer readable mediums of claim 16 , wherein the instructions operable to determine that the cover is covering the respective slot or that the cover is not covering the respective slot comprise instructions operable to:
determine, from the time-of-flight sensor data, the distance between the time-of-flight sensor and the target that reflects a signal emitted by the emitter of the time-of-flight sensor back to the receiver of the time-of-flight sensor; and
compare the distance between the time-of-flight sensor and the target to one or more threshold values indicative of the cover covering the respective slot or indicative of the cover not covering the respective slot.
18 . The one or more tangible, non-transitory computer readable mediums of claim 16 , wherein the time-of-flight sensor data comprises data that indicates that a signal emitted by the emitter of the time-of-flight sensor was not received at the receiver of the time-of-flight sensor;
wherein the instructions are further operable to determine that the cover is not covering the respective slot in response to obtaining the data that indicates that the signal emitted by the emitter was not received at the receiver.
19 . The one or more tangible, non-transitory computer readable mediums of claim 16 , wherein the time-of-flight sensor data comprises data indicative of a time between when a signal is emitted from the emitter of the time-of-flight sensor towards the location relative to the network router housing at which the cover for the respective slot is arranged and when the signal is received by the receiver of the time-of-flight sensor.
20 . The one or more tangible, non-transitory computer readable mediums of claim 16 , wherein the network router housing comprises an industrial Internet-of-Things router housing.