A method and apparatus are described for maintaining communications connectivity for client applications that send keep-alive messages and network applications that send client-alive (i.e., “are you there?”) messages. The client applications may register with a client proxy provided in an operating system (OS) of a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) and indicate a respective keep-alive message signaling rate. The network applications may register with a network proxy provided in an OS of a network node and indicate a respective client-alive message signaling rate. The client proxy and/or the network proxy may, respectively, register and prioritize keep-alive and/or client-alive message requirements, determine an optimal signaling rate based on the respective keep-alive and/or client-alive message signaling rates, and generate proxy messages, (i.e., an application layer proxy keep-alive message and/or a network layer proxy client-alive message), associated with the keep-alive and/or client-alive messages. The proxy messages may be transmitted at the optimal signaling rate.