Embodiments of the present invention disclose a mobility management method, user equipment, and a base station. The mobility management method may include: receiving, by the user equipment (UE) in a connected state, a source identifier of the UE from a first base station, where the source identifier is used to uniquely identify the UE in the first base station; entering, by the UE, a low-overhead state after satisfying a low-overhead activation condition; storing, by the UE in the low-overhead state, a connection context of the UE in the connected state, and camping on a cell according to a cell reselection criterion in a moving process; and reporting, by the UE when satisfying a first preset condition, the source identifier to a second base station to which a second cell belongs, where the second cell is a serving cell on which the UE currently camps.