Communication Method and Apparatus

An apparatus, applied to a user plane network element, and comprising:

• a transmitter;
• a receiver;
• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program to be executed by the processor, the program including instructions for:
• sending, using the transmitter, indication information to a first access device, wherein the indication information indicates to the first access device to notify the user plane network element after the first access device sends a first downlink data packet of a data flow of a first session to a terminal device;
• receiving, using the receiver, response information, wherein the response information indicates that the first downlink data packet has been sent to the terminal device;
• and
• after receiving the response information, sending, using the transmitter, a second downlink data packet of the data flow to the terminal device using a second access device.

An apparatus, applied to a first device, and comprising:

• a transmitter;
• a receiver;
• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program to be executed by the processor, the program including instructions for:
• receiving, from a second device using the receiver, a second data packet of a data flow of a first session, the second data packet being sent from the second device to the first device using a second access device;
• receiving, using the receiver, second indication information, wherein the second indication information indicates that a transmission manner of the data flow is switched from using a first access technology to using a second access technology;
• detect, based on the second indication information, whether a data packet received from a first access device comprises first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates that a first data packet of the data flow has already been sent to the first device using the first access device;
• and
• after receiving, using the first access device, the first indication information from the second device, process the second data packet, wherein the first device processes the first data packet before processing the second data packet;
• and
• wherein the first access device supports the first access technology, and the second access device supports the second access technology.