A terminal device receives downlink control information sent by a network device. The downlink control information includes a resource allocation field. The resource allocation field includes ⌈ log 2 ⁢ ⌊ N RB UL 6 ⌋ ⌉ high-order bits and M low-order bits. When the resource allocation field is used to indicate an allocated subcarrier resource, K bit states in bit states of the M bits are used to indicate allocation of subcarrier resources, and a quantity of subcarriers indicated by each of the K bit states is less than 12. The terminal device determines, based on the resource allocation field, whether the resource block or the subcarrier resource is allocated. The terminal device sends information on the allocated resource block or the subcarrier resource. The method and the device provided in embodiments of the application can be applied to a communications system.