A communication method includes receiving, by a policy control network element executed by a processor, first information. The first information is service information or a traffic steering requirement. The traffic steering requirement includes at least one service function. The communication method also includes obtaining, by the policy control network element, first traffic steering policy information from a first network element based on the first information. The first traffic steering policy information indicates network elements corresponding to the at least one service function and a sequence in which service data passes through the network elements corresponding to the at least one service function.