The present invention provides a link discovery method. In the method, a first controller sends a first message to a first node, and the first node receives the first message, and sends the second link discovery packet from a first port to the second node; the second node receives the second link discovery packet at a second port, and sends a second message to the second controller according to the label, where the second message carries the second link discovery packet and an identifier of the second port; and the second controller receives the second message, extracts an identifier of the first port in the first link discovery packet and the identifier of the second port in the second message, and determines that a link exists between the first port of the first node and the second port of the second node.