Embodiments of the application disclose a session connection establishment method and a control plane network element, to select a proper user plane network element from a plurality of distributed user plane network elements for a terminal device that requests a service. In one embodiment, the control plane network element may determine a first user plane network element set from a plurality of distributed user plane network elements based on a service, to select, from the first user plane network element set, a first target user plane network element that supports the service, and establish a session connection of a terminal device. According to the embodiment, a proper user plane network element can be selected from a plurality of distributed user plane network elements for a terminal device that requests a service, thereby improving working efficiency when the control plane network element establishes a session connection of the terminal device.