I don't know how that would help you with serializing your data, but the module Net::EasyTCP helps you setup socket connections, and it transparently handles serializing your data structures for you.

From an example in it's perldoc:

# Send and receive complex objects/strings/arrays/hashes by reference
  #
%hash = ("to be or" => "not to be" , "just another" => "perl hacker");
 $client->send(\%hash) || die "ERROR SENDING: $@\n";
 $reply = $client->receive() || die "ERROR RECEIVING: $@\n";
  foreach (keys %{$reply}) {
    print "Received key: $_ = $reply->{$_}\n";
    }
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