A sub-band scheduling method, including: sending, to a base station on a source sub-band, a first message that carries information about a data attribute requirement of to-be-transmitted data, where the information about the data attribute requirement includes at least one of the following: a transmission delay, a transmission delay type, a data bandwidth requirement, or a packet loss sensitivity; receiving, on the source sub-band, a second message that carries sub-band information of a target sub-band, where the target sub-band is a sub-band that is scheduled by the base station and that meets the data attribute requirement of the to-be-transmitted data, and the sub-band information includes at least one of the following: a sub-band number, a sub-band frequency channel number, a timing advance, an uplink resource allocated by the base station, a sub-band sending power level, or a bandwidth; and transmitting data on the target sub-band according to the sub-band information.