It's really hard to answer this without seeing your code. POE::Kernel has low-level methods that work very much like portable versions of IO::Select. If your code can be revised to work with IO::Select, then it should be about as easy to migrate to POE. See IO::Select and POE::Kernel's select_read() method. This tutorial walks the uninitiated through IO::Select and POE analogs, some of which are much higher level than IO::Select. I have little to no idea whether it applies in your case, however.