Disclosed is a 5G or a pre-5G communication system provided to support a higher data transmission rate than that of post-4G communication systems such as LTE. A method of operating a network node in a wireless communication system includes: receiving, from at least one user plane function (UPF) instance, a registration request message including UPF profile information of the at least one UPF instance; storing the UPF profile information including UPF service support information for at least one UPF service supported by the at least one UPF instance, receiving, from a session management function (SMF) node, a UPF discovery request message including UPF service information; discovering one or more UPF instance based on the UPF profile information and the UPF service information; and transmitting, to the SMF node, UPF instance information for the one or more UPF instance.