A network topology determining apparatus includes: an obtaining module, configured to obtain a connection relationship between a plurality of network elements in a network and a network grade of each network element, where the network grade is used to indicate an importance degree of the network element in the network; a first determining module, configured to determine a plurality of subnets based on the connection relationship between the plurality of network elements and the network grade of each network element; a second determining module, configured to determine location information of each network element in a descending order of the network grades of the network elements in the network based on a connection relationship between network elements in each subnet; and an establishment module, configured to establish a network topology based on the connection relationship between the plurality of network elements and the location information of each network element.