Methods and systems are provided for detecting dead tunnels associated with a VPN. An indicator of a tunnel capability, for example, a DPD vendor ID, is received from a peer through a VPN connection. The tunnel capability is associated with one or more phase II tunnels associated with the VPN. Traffic generated by the peer is detected, and if traffic is detected at a tunnel, the tunnel is presumed to be alive. When no traffic is detected in a tunnel, a DPD packet exchange with the tunnel is initiated. A determination is made, based on the packet exchange, whether the tunnel is alive.