A communication method and an apparatus is provided. The method includes: determining, by a first network device for a first carrier, association information between a first resource and at least one of a first HARQ entity, a first MAC entity, or a first RLC entity, and sending configuration information to a terminal device, where the configuration information includes the association information between the first resource and the at least one of the first HARQ entity, the first MAC entity, or the first RLC entity; and receiving, by the terminal device, the configuration information, receiving first data, determining that the first data corresponds to the first resource, and determining, based on the configuration information and the first data that corresponds to the first resource, at least one of the first HARQ entity, the first MAC entity, or the first RLC entity corresponding to the first data, HARQ performance is ensured.