The present invention provides a device-to-device communication method, an access point, and a first station, to reduce channel contention overheads of device-to-device communication, and improve a system throughput rate. The method includes: determining, by an access point, a time window used for device-to-device communication between stations; and sending, by the access point, a downlink frame including the time window, where the downlink frame is configured to instruct a station having a device-to-device communication capability to perform device-to-device communication within the time window.