I don't know if the following will help you out or not. I don't have any recent experience with this feature, instead, relying on my memory and the hope that some customers with real-world experience chime in.
The external monitoring device that you are using should have contact closure outputs that will be wire-wrapped to the 15454 backplane’s external alarm inputs. Each alarm input is then provisioned with the proper contact state (normally open or closed), the severity level (major, minor, etc.) and whether you want it the closure tied to a Virtual Wire. When the 15454’s contact closure is activated by your system’s output, the alarm is raised on the 15454 AIC-I’s faceplate LED and in CTC/CTM or other NMS (depending on how you provisioned the contact closure). If this contact closure input was tied to a 15454’s Virtual Wire, this would allow the 15454 External Input at this location to control a 15454’s External Control (output) contact closure at another networked location; the External Control contact closure output could connect to an audio or visual system at a manned facility; alerting them to an active alarm. If you have SNMP Traps created for certain network events, then this information would be captured as well.
Below is the relevant AIC-I information.
Installation Guide – Install Alarm Wires to Backplane
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/optical/15000r9_1/15454/sonet/procedure/guide/454a91_dlp0.html#wpxref44823
Reference Guide – Alarm Mgmt Section
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/optical/15000r9_1/15454/sonet/reference/guide/454a91_alarmmgmt.html#wp47928
Configuration Guide – Provision External Alarms
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/optical/15000r/dwdm/configuration/guide/454d_alarmsmgmnt.html#wp267870
Tom
