Communication method and related apparatus

A communication method, applied to a first network element, wherein the method comprises:

• receiving a service request, wherein the service request comprises an identifier of a target application and a first location identifier of a terminal;
• determining a first forwarding network element and a first processing network element based on the first location identifier, wherein the first forwarding network element is configured to identify first service data from service data from the terminal based on a service flow identification model, and forward the first service data to the first processing network element, wherein the first service data is service data of a target service in the target application, and wherein the first processing network element is configured to process the first service data based on a function image of the target service;
• and
• establishing a transmission channel among the terminal, the first forwarding network element, and the first processing network element.

A communication method, applied to a second network element, wherein the method comprises:

• receiving deployment request information from an application provider, wherein the deployment request information comprises at least one of a service flow identification model or a function image of a target service;
• determining, based on the deployment request information, at least one of first deployment area information of the service flow identification model or second deployment area information of the function image;
• and
• sending deployment information to a first network element, wherein the deployment information comprises at least one of the first deployment area information or the second deployment area information.