Android Networking without Internet

[beatleboy07]

So I want to use my tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab 3) with TouchOSC to control Supercollider on my Linux laptop. I want to keep everything isolated (i.e. not dependant on using venue internet), so I have a D-Link router. I would like to have my router plugged in without receiving internet, and send a hard line to the laptop. Then I want to connect to the wifi portion of the router with my tablet.

This all works just fine and communication between the two devices is more or less instantaneous. The problem is that the tablet will always disconnect after some time when there is not an internet connection. I've confirmed that this is the case with both the tablet and my phone (Samsung Galaxy S4). If the wifi point has internet, the devices will stay connected indefinitely.

I've tried this with other routers not connected to the internet and I get the same results.

Any ideas?

Thanks!