So you want the least thread intensive way of keeping the connections?
In that case, you could ask Gregor from Phex. He's implemented Nonblocking IO in Phex to archieve that goal, and he had a few more longterm ideas.
Just post your question to the Phex Development board, so he sees it:
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Development Open Discussion - Gnutella Forums
But my question was not "why?" - I asked about your thoughts on the different techniques.