Communication method and apparatus

Described in the embodiments of the present invention are a communication method and apparatus, being used for solving the problem of large delay of downlink data caused by difficulties in preempting a downlink channel by a network device. In the method and apparatus, the network device sends first signaling to a first terminal device, the first signaling being used to instruct the first terminal device to perform, on an unlicensed frequency spectrum, a listen before talk (LBT) flow for occupying an unlicensed frequency band, and to send, on the unlicensed frequency band, uplink information within a first time length. The network device receives, on the unlicensed frequency spectrum, the uplink information from the first terminal device within the first time length. The first time length is a part of maximum channel occupancy time obtained by the first terminal device on the unlicensed frequency spectrum, and the first time length is less than the maximum channel occupancy time.