The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for data packet switching, and an access switch and a switching system, so as to satisfy requirements of a datacenter for a switching bandwidth and a switching granularity. The method includes: receiving MAC frame control information; determining an interface used for forwarding an MAC frame according to the MAC frame control information and through performing a query on a MAC address forwarding table, where the interface used for forwarding the MAC frame includes a downlink interface, an uplink electrical packet switching network interface and/or an uplink optical packet switching network interface; transmitting a control signal to an electrical packet switching unit, so that the MAC frame is forwarded to the determined interface. According to the method provided in the present invention, the utilization rate of each interface can be improved.