The present disclosure discloses a method and a network device for failure detection of nodes in a cluster. Specifically, a network device transmits data to another device at a first time. The network device then receives an acknowledgment of the data from the second device at a second time. Next, the network device determines a Round Trip Time (RTT) for the first device and the second device based on the first time and the second time. Based on the RTT, the network device determines a first frequency for transmitting a heartbeat protocol message between the first device and the second device, and transmits a heartbeat protocol message between the first device and the second device at the first frequency.