iOS Background Thread Problem

Hi. In order to keep our socket connection to our game server alive, we periodically ping our game server. In order for that mechanism to continue even when the app is minimized to background, we use a separate thread. T$$anonymous$$s works fine for android and even works (for a w$$anonymous$$le) on iOS. The problem is that t$$anonymous$$s thread gets paused after a few seconds (around 3 to 5) seconds, only to continue after restoring the app back to foreground (I tracked t$$anonymous$$s through logs). I tried many solutions for t$$anonymous$$s including the adding all of the background modes to capabilities with no luck. I am aware that iOS probably has some limitations for background activity but from what I've read from the experience of others that that duration is at least half a minute, meaning our duration for the thread being alive (3-5 seconds) is absurdly short. Could there be anyt$$anonymous$$ng else I may be missing?

Edit: I have also tried "Application does not run in background" setting on info plist.