The present invention discloses a communication method based on non-orthogonal transmission, and a device. The method includes: receiving, by first user equipment UE, first downlink control information sent by a base station, where the first downlink control information includes a downlink control parameter of the first UE and an index of a radio network temporary identifier RNTI of second UE; receiving, by the first UE, second downlink control information sent by the base station; and obtaining, by the first UE, a data signal of the first UE according to the index of the RNTI of the second UE, the downlink control parameter of the second UE, the data signal of the associated user equipment group, and the downlink control parameter of the first UE. Signaling overheads can be reduced according to embodiments of the present invention.