A method includes receiving, by a forwarding device, M pieces of description information that are sent by a controller and are in a one-to-one correspondence with M forwarding services. Each piece of description information includes preset performance of a corresponding forwarding service and an identifier of a table to be searched, and a set including preset performance of the M forwarding services includes Q elements. The method further includes generating Q pieces of simultaneous access information according to the M pieces of description information; and determining, according to the Q pieces of simultaneous access information, that N tables are to be stored in at least one memory of the forwarding device.