An apparatus and a method for transmitting a control signal for determining a keep alive status of a counterpart node in a broadband communication network are provided. When a period for determining a keep alive status of the counterpart node to which a data is connected arrives, whether traffic is received from the counterpart node is determined. If it is determined that the traffic is received from the counterpart node, the keep alive status of the counterpart node is determined using the traffic received from the counterpart node. If it is determined that the traffic is not received from the counterpart node, a request signal for determining the keep alive status of the counterpart node is transmitted to the counterpart node.