A time-sensitive networking communication method and an apparatus, where the method may include: determining, by an application function network element, a virtual switching node identifier corresponding to a port identifier of a user plane function network element; determining a virtual port identifier of a virtual switching node identified by the virtual switching node identifier; obtaining attribute information of the virtual switching node, where the attribute information includes attribute information of a port identified by the port identifier of the user plane function network element and attribute information of a virtual port identified by the virtual port identifier; and sending the attribute information of the virtual switching node to a time-sensitive network, where the attribute information of the virtual switching node is used to request the time-sensitive network to register or update the virtual switching node based on the attribute information of the virtual switching node.