The base station sends control area indication information of an (N+1)th timeslot to the user equipment by using a physical control channel of an Nth timeslot in a control area of the Nth timeslot, where the control area indication information includes frequency domain control indication information and time domain control indication information, the frequency domain control indication information is used to indicate a frequency domain resource block area occupied by a control area of the (N+1)th timeslot in the (N+1)th timeslot, and the time domain control indication information is used to indicate a time domain time unit area occupied by the control area of the (N+1)th timeslot in the (N+1)th timeslot; and the base station sends, in the control area of the (N+1)th timeslot, a physical control channel of the (N+1)th timeslot to the user equipment.