Embodiments of this application provide a communication method. The method includes: generating a first reference signal, where the first reference signal is two-dimensional orthogonal to a second reference signal, the second reference signal is a reference signal obtained after delay τ transform and Doppler translation r transform are performed on the first reference signal in a communication process, 0 ≤ τ ≤ τ max , 0 ≤ | ν | ≤ ν max , τ ≠ 0 or ν ≠ 0, τ max is a first threshold, ν max is a second threshold, and | x | represents an absolute value of x; and transmitting the first reference signal. For the first reference signal that meets the foregoing requirement, during channel estimation, a spreading function of a channel may be obtained through a two-dimensional correlation operation. This manner of obtaining the spreading function of the channel is simple, fast, and accurate. Therefore, performance of a communication system is greatly improved.