This application discloses a method for controlling traffic in a packet-based network. In the method, after receiving a control packet from a transmit end, an intermediate node between the transmit end and the receive end sends a control packet at the head of a first control queue based on a first duration, wherein the first duration is obtained based on a committed burst size (CBS) and a first committed information rate (CIR), and the intermediate node is configured to send a packet of a first transmit end to a first receive end in the packet-based network. After sending the control packet in the control queue, the intermediate node sends a first data packet set at the head of a data queue based on the sent control packet, wherein the first data packet set comprises C data packets, and C is an integer greater than or equal to 1.