A packet forwarding method and apparatus, and a communication network, related to the field of communication technologies. In the solutions provided, a controller may obtain a correspondence between an application-aware identifier of a service flow and a network service required for transmitting the service flow, and deliver the correspondence to a network device. Further, when identifying the service flow as a service flow indicated by the application-aware identifier, the network device may directly forward a packet of the service flow by using the corresponding network service. The controller may establish and deliver the correspondence between the application-aware identifier and the network service, so that the network device can directly forward the service packet of the service flow based on the correspondence. Therefore, flexibility of forwarding the service packet is effectively improved.