— After identifying that current GMPLS specifications only allow for the implementation of a call blocking mode of operation that handles immediate-request calls (not book-ahead calls), this paper addresses the question of suitability of different types of applications for such networks. Two types of applications are considered, ones in which the per-circuit bandwidth and mean call holding time are independent and ones in which they are dependent (file transfers). GMPLS networks are often cited for high-bandwidth applications and for large file transfers. This work, through analysis, reasons that GMPLS networks are not well suited both for applications in which the required per-circuit bandwidth is high, on the order of one-tenth the shared link capacity, or low, on the order of one-thousandth the shared link capacity. Ideal is the one-hundredth range. Further for file transfers, we show that the best range of operation to achieve high utilization and low call blocking rates with...