hub compliance - dropping ports

[Broadfoot, Kieran J]

Guys,

A quick question regarding the hub protocol in the spec. It states:

"If no heartbeat is received from a given xAPp for two heartbeat
intervals,
then the hub-port is removed from the list."

Ive been writing a hub in perl (well you get hub functionality for free
when
you use the perl xAP module) but as Im lazy and Id like to avoid forking
(or
ropey old perl threads) my heartbeats are sent as and when the module can.
This means the hub can never guarantee that two messages should have
arrived
in a particular timeframe and conclude that its safe to drop a port.

I guess my question is simple, is it essential for a hub to drop ports
after
a given period of time when the cost of continuing to publish to a specific
port is inconsequential in real terms.

Please be nice and help me avoid forking ;-)

thanks
kieran