A packet processing apparatus has an ingress packet processing circuit, an egress packet processing circuit, and a traffic manager. The ingress packet processing circuit processes ingress packets received from ingress ports. The egress packet processing circuit processes egress packets to be forwarded through egress ports. The traffic manager deals with at least packet queuing and scheduling. At least one of the ingress packet processing circuit and the egress packet processing circuit includes a first packet processing unit located at a first packet flow path, and a second packet processing unit located at a second packet flow path. The first packet flow path is parallel with the second packet flow path, and programmability of the first packet processing unit is higher than programmability of the second packet processing unit.

A communication method and apparatus are provided. The method includes: A central unit sends first indication information to a distributed unit, where the first indication information indicates the distributed unit to establish a radio bearer corresponding to a session associated with a first slice, and/or indicates the distributed unit to suspend the session. The first cell is incapable of providing a terminal device with a service corresponding to the first slice, the first cell is a cell managed by the central unit, and is within a registration area of the terminal device, the first slice belongs to a first slice set, and the first slice set includes a slice allowed within all or a part of areas in the registration area for usage and/or a slice rejected within a part of areas in the registration area for usage.