Abstract: Inrecentyears,lowEarthorbit(LEO)satellitecommunicationnetworksattractalotofresearchers'attentionforitsglobalcoverage,shortpropagationdelay,low-powerlinksandgreatinvulnerabilityperformance，etc.Itwillbeanimportantpartofthefutureglobalmobilecommunicationsystems.MobilitymanagementisakeytechnologyforenablingserviceinLEOsatellitecommunicationnetworks.Thecharacteristics,researchstatusandproblemsofmobilitymanagementwereanalyzed.Firstly,abriefclassificationofmobilitymanagementofLEOsatellitecommunicationsnetworkswasprovidedandcharacteristicsdistinguishedfromterrestrialmobilitywirelessnetworkswereanalyzedbasedonthearchitectureandfeaturesofLEOsatellitecommunicationnetworks.Thenthestate-of-the-artmobilitymanagementschemesinLEOsatellitecommunicationnetworksweresummarizedfromlinklayer,networklayerandtransportlayer.AdetaileddescriptionoftheapplicationofMIPv6andSIGMAinLEOsatelliteenvironmentwasgiven.Finally,sometrendsofmobilitymanagementofLEOsatellitecommunicationsnetworkswaspointedout.

Key words: satellitenetwork, lowearthorbit(LEO)satellite, mobilitymanagement, mobileIP(MIP, SeamlessIP-diversitybasedGeneralizedMobilityArchitecture(SIGMA)