IP Traffic Optimization?

sireenmalik asks: "As part of Network Management Systems development team i am developing an IP traffic optimizer. There are both online optimization(non-deterministic) and offline optimization algorithms (deterministic). The question is if we do Online optimization on the flows in real-time, is Offline Optimization afterwards worth it, at all? Has anyone ever made quantitative measurements? Any studies undertaken? What is the improvement in network utilization? Is it significant? Any comments?"