In an embodiment, a network communication entity (NCE) determines that an access terminal has re-entered a serving area of an access network, and also determines whether a given period of time, associated with a previous session of the access terminal in the serving area, has expired. If the NCE determines no expiration, the NCE re-activates session information associated with the previous session, including re-activation of an identifier that uniquely identifies the access terminal within the serving area. If the access terminal had a session in another serving area before re-entering the serving area, the NCE stores the session information for the access terminal in the other serving area in association with a period of time indicative of a duration during which the session information continues to be valid within the other serving area. The NCE may either correspond to the access terminal or a portion of the access network.