Disclosed is a downlink transmission method that includes UE receiving configuration information sent form base station and accordingly adjusting CQI table and MCS table; UE measuring and reporting downlink channel quality indicator information to the base station; with the UE reporting the CQI information according to a backward compatible CQI table or a CQI table which supports 256 QAM modulation; and the UE receiving downlink scheduling information sent from the base station, receiving accordingly downlink data sent from the base station, with the UE processing the MCS information according to a backward compatible MCS table or a MCS table which supports 256 QAM modulation.