In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview and classification on a wide range of the existing location management schemes which have been reported for wireless cellular networks and Mobile IP-based networks, respectively. In addition, from the various previous literature, we derive common key conceptual techniques, their main design goals and performance considerations on them, which can provide a useful guidance for understanding location management schemes regardless of network types. The aim of this paper is not to propose a new scheme for location management, but to highlight the various key design features involved in the design of the existing location management schemes, and to enhance an insight into the fundamental principles and techniques for designing more efficient and optimized location management scheme in future wireless mobile networks. We expect that regardless of network types, these underlying fundamental principles and conceptual techniques could be also easily tailored for more efficient mobility/QoS support in future mobile computing environments.