This writable enumerated value lets an admin issue a SONET APS command against a group, such as clear, lockout, forceSwitchToWorking/Protection, or manualSwitchToWorking/Protection. It is the primary control an admin uses to manually force or restore traffic between the working and protection lines in a group, for example during planned maintenance on the working line; the MIB notes it is write-only and reads may return implementation-specific results. For example, setting apsGroupStateCommand to forceSwitchToProtection(4) before pulling the working fiber for maintenance moves traffic to the protection line ahead of time, and clear(1) is set afterward to remove the forced condition.