A first line card chassis, LCC in a switching system, wherein the first LCC is interconnected with at least one second LCC and at least one third LCC according to a mesh form topology; and the first LCC comprises at least one switch element, SE, wherein the SE comprises: a first acquiring module, configured to receive a packet, and parse the packet to acquire a destination address of the packet; and a sending module, configured to: when the destination address indicates that the packet is to be sent to the third LCC, if a currently preset configuration mode of the switching system is a first configuration mode, bear the packet on a third link, and forward the packet to the third LCC, wherein the third link comprises: a first link and a second link, or a second link; the first link is a directly connected two-hop link between the first LCC and the third LCC, and a quantity of links comprised by the first link is at least one; the second link is an n-hop link that passes through the at least one second LCC and that is between the first LCC and the third LCC, and a quantity of links comprised by the second link is at least one, wherein n is a natural number, and 3≤n≤N; and the first configuration mode indicates that an N-hop mode is currently applied to the switching system, wherein N is a natural number greater than or equal to 3; characterised in that: the SE further comprises: a third acquiring module, wherein the third acquiring module is configured to acquire status information of the at least one link in the third link; and the sending module is further configured to distribute, according to the status information, acquired by the third acquiring module, of the at least one link in the third link, the packet to the at least one link in the third link to perform forwarding. a first acquiring module, configured to receive a packet, and parse the packet to acquire a destination address of the packet; and a sending module, configured to: when the destination address indicates that the packet is to be sent to the third LCC, if a currently preset configuration mode of the switching system is a first configuration mode, bear the packet on a third link, and forward the packet to the third LCC, wherein the third link comprises: a first link and a second link, or a second link; the first link is a directly connected two-hop link between the first LCC and the third LCC, and a quantity of links comprised by the first link is at least one; the second link is an n-hop link that passes through the at least one second LCC and that is between the first LCC and the third LCC, and a quantity of links comprised by the second link is at least one, wherein n is a natural number, and 3≤n≤N; and the first configuration mode indicates that an N-hop mode is currently applied to the switching system, wherein N is a natural number greater than or equal to 3; characterised in that: the SE further comprises: a third acquiring module, wherein the third acquiring module is configured to acquire status information of the at least one link in the third link; and the sending module is further configured to distribute, according to the status information, acquired by the third acquiring module, of the at least one link in the third link, the packet to the at least one link in the third link to perform forwarding. the SE further comprises: a third acquiring module, wherein the third acquiring module is configured to acquire status information of the at least one link in the third link; and the sending module is further configured to distribute, according to the status information, acquired by the third acquiring module, of the at least one link in the third link, the packet to the at least one link in the third link to perform forwarding.