A local mobility anchor (LMA) connected to a network receives session requests sent by first and second gateways on behalf of a mobile node seeking to establish a mobility session with the network. The LMA selects, based on a gateway selection criterion, either a first or a second gateway as active for actively handling the mobility session and the other gateway as standby. The LMA commands the active gateway to actively handle the mobility session and to configure the mobile node to use the active gateway for the mobility session. The LMA commands the standby gateway to not configure the mobile node and to operate in active standby to handle a failover of the mobility session from the primary gateway. The LMA establishes with the active gateway a first IP tunnel to be used for the mobility session.