diff --git a/waku/v2/node/keepalive_test.go b/waku/v2/node/keepalive_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d90b12de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/waku/v2/node/keepalive_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+package node
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p"
+	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p-core/peerstore"
+	"github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p/p2p/protocol/ping"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+)
+
+func TestKeepAlive(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+	defer cancel()
+
+	host1, err := libp2p.New(ctx, libp2p.DefaultTransports, libp2p.ListenAddrStrings("/ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/0"))
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	host2, err := libp2p.New(ctx, libp2p.DefaultTransports, libp2p.ListenAddrStrings("/ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/0"))
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	host1.Peerstore().AddAddrs(host2.ID(), host2.Addrs(), peerstore.PermanentAddrTTL)
+
+	err = host1.Connect(ctx, host1.Peerstore().PeerInfo(host2.ID()))
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	ping := ping.NewPingService(host1)
+
+	require.Len(t, host1.Network().Peers(), 1)
+
+	ctx2, cancel2 := context.WithTimeout(ctx, 3*time.Second)
+	defer cancel2()
+	pingPeer(ctx2, ping, host2.ID())
+
+	require.NoError(t, ctx.Err())
+}
diff --git a/waku/v2/node/wakunode2.go b/waku/v2/node/wakunode2.go
index e38caea9..573984cc 100644
--- a/waku/v2/node/wakunode2.go
+++ b/waku/v2/node/wakunode2.go
@@ -694,6 +694,9 @@ func (w *WakuNode) Peers() PeerStats {
 	return p
 }
 
+// startKeepAlive creates a go routine that periodically pings connected peers.
+// This is necessary because TCP connections are automatically closed due to inactivity,
+// and doing a ping will avoid this (with a small bandwidth cost)
 func (w *WakuNode) startKeepAlive(t time.Duration) {
 	log.Info("Setting up ping protocol with duration of ", t)
 
@@ -705,20 +708,7 @@ func (w *WakuNode) startKeepAlive(t time.Duration) {
 			select {
 			case <-ticker.C:
 				for _, p := range w.host.Network().Peers() {
-					log.Debug("Pinging ", p)
-					go func(peer peer.ID) {
-						ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(w.ctx, 3*time.Second)
-						defer cancel()
-						pr := w.ping.Ping(ctx, peer)
-						select {
-						case res := <-pr:
-							if res.Error != nil {
-								log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("Could not ping %s: %s", peer, res.Error.Error()))
-							}
-						case <-ctx.Done():
-							log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("Could not ping %s: %s", peer, ctx.Err()))
-						}
-					}(p)
+					go pingPeer(w.ctx, w.ping, p)
 				}
 			case <-w.quit:
 				ticker.Stop()
@@ -727,3 +717,19 @@ func (w *WakuNode) startKeepAlive(t time.Duration) {
 		}
 	}()
 }
+
+func pingPeer(ctx context.Context, pingService *ping.PingService, peer peer.ID) {
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, 3*time.Second)
+	defer cancel()
+
+	log.Debug("Pinging ", peer)
+	pr := pingService.Ping(ctx, peer)
+	select {
+	case res := <-pr:
+		if res.Error != nil {
+			log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("Could not ping %s: %s", peer, res.Error.Error()))
+		}
+	case <-ctx.Done():
+		log.Error(fmt.Sprintf("Could not ping %s: %s", peer, ctx.Err()))
+	}
+}