A communication method, comprising: receiving, by a terminal device, a first physical downlink control channel sent by a network device in a first time domain scheduling unit, wherein the first physical downlink control channel is used for scheduling a physical downlink data channel in at least one time domain scheduling unit before the first time domain scheduling unit; and receiving, by the terminal device, data corresponding to the first physical downlink control channel in the at least one time domain scheduling unit according to the first physical downlink control channel, wherein the at least one time domain scheduling unit is a second time domain scheduling unit before and adjacent to the first time domain scheduling unit, the second time domain scheduling unit comprises a second physical downlink control channel, the second time domain scheduling unit comprises N symbols, and the physical downlink data channel capable of being scheduled by the first physical downlink control channel in the second time domain scheduling unit occupies N-M+1th to Nth symbols of the second time domain scheduling unit, which do not overlap with symbols occupied by the second physical downlink control channel, wherein N and M are both positive integers, and M≤N, characterized in that the first time domain scheduling unit comprises a first synchronization signal block, the second time domain scheduling unit comprises a second synchronization signal block, the first synchronization signal block is different from the second synchronization signal block, the second synchronization signal block occupies first to Pth symbols of the second time domain scheduling unit, and the second physical downlink control channel is located on at least one side of a bandwidth of the second synchronization signal block in the frequency domain, wherein P is a positive integer, and P≤(N-M). receiving, by a terminal device, a first physical downlink control channel sent by a network device in a first time domain scheduling unit, wherein the first physical downlink control channel is used for scheduling a physical downlink data channel in at least one time domain scheduling unit before the first time domain scheduling unit; and receiving, by the terminal device, data corresponding to the first physical downlink control channel in the at least one time domain scheduling unit according to the first physical downlink control channel, wherein the at least one time domain scheduling unit is a second time domain scheduling unit before and adjacent to the first time domain scheduling unit, the second time domain scheduling unit comprises a second physical downlink control channel, the second time domain scheduling unit comprises N symbols, and the physical downlink data channel capable of being scheduled by the first physical downlink control channel in the second time domain scheduling unit occupies N-M+1th to Nth symbols of the second time domain scheduling unit, which do not overlap with symbols occupied by the second physical downlink control channel, wherein N and M are both positive integers, and M≤N, characterized in that the first time domain scheduling unit comprises a first synchronization signal block, the second time domain scheduling unit comprises a second synchronization signal block, the first synchronization signal block is different from the second synchronization signal block, the second synchronization signal block occupies first to Pth symbols of the second time domain scheduling unit, and the second physical downlink control channel is located on at least one side of a bandwidth of the second synchronization signal block in the frequency domain, wherein P is a positive integer, and P≤(N-M).