Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, a device, and a system for determining timing advance grouping. In one embodiment, a base station adds a component carrier (CC) for a user equipment (UE). The base station determines a timing advance (TA) group to which the added CC belongs. The TA group is a set of CCs that can share a TA. The base station sends identification information that identifies the TA group to the UE.