A buffer control method, a network element, and a system. The method includes: receiving, by a network element, a flow table message from a controller, where the flow table message includes buffer information of a data packet matching a flow table; processing, by the network element, a buffer of the data packet based on the buffer information, and sending a flow table response message to the controller. In the method, the network element can save, based on a corresponding saving manner, at least one data packet matching the flow table to the buffer corresponding to the flow table. Thus a data flow granularity-based buffer processing manner can be supported in an OpenFlow protocol, and a data buffering requirement of a mobile network can be met.