This application discloses example application instance address translation methods. One example method includes receiving, by a control plane device from a mobile edge cloud control device, an address of a target application instance of an application service accessed by a terminal. The control plane device can then send the address of the target application instance to a first user plane device. The control plane device can then instruct the first user plane device to set, as the address of the target application instance, a destination address of an uplink packet that is of the terminal and is associated with the application service.