A communications network delay variation smoothing method, an apparatus, and a system are disclosed. The method includes: clearing, by a local device, a forward delay threshold and a reverse delay threshold when an initialization time starts; and when determining that a maximum value between a real-time forward delay value corresponding to a current service flow fragment and a reverse delay threshold corresponding to the current service flow fragment is greater than a current value of the forward delay threshold, replacing the current value of the forward delay threshold with the maximum value. In this way, after the initialization ends, a delay threshold after the initialization ends is determined and is applied to delay compensation, thereby significantly reducing a bi-directional asymmetric delay variation, and avoiding a problem of abnormal user communication that is caused when the variation exceeds a limit.