Service providers and enterprise customers continue to look for ways to improve their profitability through lower operating costs. The AIC-I card allows network administrators to better monitor the health of the network, with additional visibility to the operations in remote, unstaffed facilities. The AIC-I card extends the capability of the Cisco ONS 15454 to retrieve environmental alarms and monitor the health of the system's power source. The AIC-I card supports standard orderwire capabilities as well as Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH) overhead-based data channels, lowering the user's need for ancillary leased lines to support inter-central office and management connectivity. These features help reduce the overall costs of operating a network, resulting in improved return on investment (ROI).