1. A method for forming an optimized communication connection providing enhanced performance of at least one application utilizing the communication connection, the optimized communication connection comprising a plurality of individual communication networks, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining a set of performance requirements corresponding to the at least one application utilizing the communication connection; obtaining capacity information for each of a plurality of available channels associated with the respective plurality of individual communication networks; applying at least one policy-based management criteria to the available channels for controlling one or more aspects of the available channels; dynamically aggregating the plurality of individual communication networks to form the optimized communication connection, the communication connection leveraging one or more features and capabilities of at least a subset of the plurality of communication networks; and controlling real-time traffic scheduling across at least a subset of the plurality of available channels so as to adapt the communication connection to changes in at least one of network conditions and policy-based management criteria; wherein controlling real-time traffic scheduling comprises estimating available bandwidth on network paths, said estimating available bandwidth comprising: sending a train of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) probes to dynamically estimate available bandwidth along each of a given end-to-end network path for network paths that have been inactive for a prescribed period of time; and estimating available bandwidth on network paths using passive low-pass filtering for active network paths.