A central unit handover method includes: receiving, by a first distributed unit DU, a first bearer setup request that is about a first service and that is sent by a target central unit CU, where the first bearer setup request includes a first service identifier; determining, by the first DU based on the first service identifier, whether a service resource needs to be allocated to the first service; and sending, by the first DU, a first bearer setup response to the target CU, where the first bearer setup response includes information used to indicate whether the service resource needs to be allocated to the first service.