The invention discloses a method for reducing location management signaling overhead in an HMIPv6 (hierarchical mobile internet protocol version 6) network based on pointer chains. The method comprises binding update and IP paging. The method is characterized in that the step of binding update comprises the following substeps: when a mobile node in idle state moves to a new MAP (mobility anchor point) domain, setting up pointer chains among MAPs through binding update among the MAPs and setting the pointer chain length threshold value; and if the pointer chain length is lower than the threshold value, using binding update among the MAPs to replace home binding update and increasing the pointer chain length, otherwise carrying out home binding update and resetting up new pointer chains; and when a correspondent node initiates sessions toward the mobile node, the MAP domain in which the mobile node is currently located is found via the pointer chains and IP paging is carried out in the MAP domain. The method is applied to location management in a mobile communication system based on HMIPv6 and has the effect of effectively reducing the location management signaling overhead when the mobile node moves among the MAP domains.