Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a passive optical network communications method and apparatus, and a system. The method includes: determining a wavelength channel group of an optical network unit (ONU) and a wavelength channel in the wavelength channel group; and sending a first message to the ONU, where the first message carries identification information of the wavelength channel group and identification information of the wavelength channel in the wavelength channel group. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, such a logical channel group as a wavelength channel group is established, and when a channel in a channel group is faulty, a scheduling module of an OLT can rapidly and easily reallocate a service to another member in the channel group, so that channel interaction is avoided. Therefore, bandwidth scheduling efficiency and bandwidth utilization of a PON system are higher.