liz, thanks for feedback. I didn't realize Tread::Queue could be so costly ; my suggestion was the result of a mere query on CPAN by the word queue ; the module looked interesting.

There's another thing: I suppose the OP requires hundreds of packets per second as a burst condition, right? The perspective of coping with a sustained condition like that, I mean receiving and processing that amount in pure Perl, in real time, looks dim. Even if the receiving routine is fast enough, the queue would quickly fill up. (there's a discussion on what the "processing" amounts to). Anyway, that calls for optimized C code, IMHO.

All in all, I think the main idea of my original reply (treat your network code as an interrupt handling routine) is still valid in the context of datagram protocols.