Disclosed in the present application are a handover method and apparatus, relating to the field of communications, and being used for reducing the interruption time of data transmission in a distributed unit DU handover process when the central unit control plane/central unit user plane CU-CP/CU-UP in a base station are separated, enhancing the user experience. In the handover method provided in the embodiments of the present application, a notification sent by the CU-CP to the CU-UP not only carries tunnel switching instruction information, but also comprises maintenance instruction information, the maintenance instruction information instructing the CU-UP to continue sending downlink data by means of the original downlink tunnel, such that downlink data can still be received when the user device is not yet connected to a target DU, thereby reducing the interruption time of data transmission during the DU handover process, and enhancing the user experience.