Using SSH as a simple VPN: timeouts?

I'm using ssh with port forwarding

ssh -f -N username@sshserver -L localport:remotehost:remoteport

together with the following iptables rule to transparently forward all traffic with destination remotehost:remoteport through the secure tunnel.

iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp -d remotehost--dport remoteport -j DNAT --to-dest 127.0.0.1:localport

This works really great, but after some time (a few hours) the ssh connection is automatically disconnected (mostly after a period of inactivity on the client). I assume this has to do something with a timeout on the ssh server? But I couldn't find documentation on that? Anyone knows how to keep the connection open forever (or until I kill the ssh client manually)? I have the necessary permissions to change the configuration of to ssh server, if that is required.
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