Yes, something like this should work:

config :kernel,
  net_ticktime: 120

If you’re talking about pubsub then forking is not needed. Pubsub already supports adapters to use different backends. E.g. there’s a redis based backend for heroku users.

It appears that nodes just lose connection from time to time

This is what global source code says about it:

%% ----------------------------------------------------------------
%% Prevent Overlapping Partitions Algorithm
%% ========================================
%%
%% 1. When a node lose connection to another node it sends a
%%    {lost_connection, LostConnNode, OtherNode} message to all
%%    other nodes that it knows of.
%% 2. When a lost_connection message is received the receiver
%%    first checks if it has seen this message before. If so, it
%%    just ignores it. If it has not seen it before, it sends the
%%    message to all nodes it knows of. This in order to ensure
%%    that all connected nodes will receive this message. It then
%%    sends a {remove_connection, LostConnRecvNode} message (where
%%    LostConnRecvNode is its own node name) to OtherNode and
%%    clear all information about OtherNode so OtherNode wont be
%%    part of ReceiverNode's cluster anymore. When this information
%%    has been cleared, no lost_connection will be triggered when
%%    a nodedown message for the connection to OtherNode is
%%    received.
%% 3. When a {remove_connection, LostConnRecvNode} message is
%%    received, the receiver node takes down the connection to
%%    LostConnRecvNode and clears its information about
%%    LostConnRecvNode so it is not part of its cluster anymore.
%%    Both nodes will receive a nodedown message due to the
%%    connection being closed, but none of them will send
%%    lost_connection messages since they have cleared information
%%    about the other node.
%%
%% This will take down more connections than the minimum amount
%% of connections to remove in order to form fully connected
%% partitions. For example, if the user takes down a connection
%% between two nodes, the rest of the nodes will disconnect from
%% both of these nodes instead of just one. This is due to:
%% * We do not want to partition a remaining network when a node
%%   has halted. When you receive a nodedown and/or lost_connection
%%   messages you don't know if the corresponding node has halted
%%   or if there are network issues.
%% * We need to decide which connection to take down as soon as
%%   we receive a lost_connection message in order to prevent
%%   inconsistencies entering global's state.
%% * All nodes need to make the same choices independent of
%%   each other.
%% 
%% ----------------------------------------------------------------

So, the real question is are you sure that the connection between nodes is not lost from time to time? If you’re sure, what tool do you use to check it?