Communication method and apparatus

A communication method, performed at a source node of a communication system, wherein the method comprises:

• generating a data frame, wherein
• the data frame is an optical transport network (OTN) data frame or a microwave data frame,
• the data frame comprises a preset bandwidth exclusive channel number, a sink node address, and scheduling information;
• and
• sending the data frame to be used at a next-hop node of the source node to
• in response to determining that the data frame carries the preset bandwidth exclusive channel number, schedule the data frame based on the scheduling information, and
• forward the scheduled data frame to a sink node indicated by the sink node address,
• wherein the preset bandwidth exclusive channel number indicates a preset bandwidth exclusive channel that comprises a plurality of soft pipes.

A communication apparatus, configured as a transit node of a communication system, wherein the apparatus comprises:

• a processing chip;
• and
• a transceiver configured for the processing chip to communicate with another apparatus, and
• the processing chip is configured to:
• receive, via the transceiver, a data frame, wherein
• the data frame comprises a bandwidth exclusive channel number, and
• the data frame is an optical transport network (OTN) data frame or a microwave data frame;
• in response to the bandwidth exclusive channel number carried in the data frame being a preset bandwidth exclusive channel number, obtain scheduling information and a sink node address from the data frame;
• schedule the data frame based on the scheduling information;
• and
• forward, via the transceiver, the scheduled data frame to a sink node indicated by the sink node address,
• wherein the preset bandwidth exclusive channel number indicates a preset bandwidth exclusive channel that comprises a plurality of soft pipes.