Flow control method, equipment and system

The invention provides a flow control method, flow control equipment and a flow control system. The method comprises the following steps: an access device receives an activation request message transmitted by a terminal; the access device carries out flow control on the handling process of the activation request message according to control information obtained in advance, so that the quantity ofthe activation request messages distributed on a gateway device does not exceed that of the activation request messages handled by the gateway device, the control information is the activation request message handling capacity information transmitted by the gateway device, or the control information is the information of the terminal, needed to be controlled and determined in advance, and/or the information of an access point name (APN). By adopting the embodiment of the invention, a network element resource can be saved.