Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)

I am using struts framework for my web application and in between just for a test I have used spring framework database connectivity too in few files. I have deployed my application on tomcat 5.5 server on linux machine. Application is running fine, but sometimes this application shutdown by itself and I have to restart tomcat again (like 3-4 times a month). I wan to run this application continuously. I am getting this error in my log files

1 Error: DAO.SpringInformDAO[ERROR](SpringInformDAO.java:loadTypelessNameIDListProduct:246)org.springframework.dao.DataAccessResourceFailureException: StatementCallback;

2.Caused by: com.mysql.jdbc.CommunicationsException: The last packet successfully received from the server was40524 seconds ago.The last packet sent successfully to the server was 40524 seconds ago, which is longer than the server configured value of 'wait_timeout'. You should consider either expiring and/or testing connection validity before use in your application, increasing the server configured values for client timeouts, or using the Connector/J connection property 'autoReconnect=true' to avoid this problem.

3. Caused by: java.net.SocketException: Broken pipe

Does someone has any idea how to solve this problem?? It would be great help

Thanks