A signal measurement method, comprising: receiving, by user equipment, UE, a measurement configuration message sent by a base station; performing, by the LTE, signal quality measurement on a cell according to a common reference signal, CRS, to obtain a measurement result, wherein the signal quality measurement comprises reference signal received power, RSRP, and/or a reference signal received quality, RSRQ, of the CRS, when a length of the received measurement configuration message sent by the base station is equal to the field length of a conventional measurement configuration message, wherein the conventional measurement configuration message does not include a field indicating a type of a reference signal; performing, by the UE according to the measurement configuration message, signal quality measurement on a cell to obtain a measurement result, wherein the signal quality measurement comprises reference signal received power, RSRP, and/or a reference signal received quality, RSRQ, of a first reference signal and RSRP and/or RSRQ of a second reference signal, when a length of the received measurement configuration message sent by the base station is not equal to the field length of the conventional measurement configuration message, and the measurement configuration message includes a field and a value of the field is used to indicate the first reference signal and the second reference signal; and sending, by the UE, the measurement result to the base station; wherein the measurement configuration message carries a measurement identity, ID, wherein the measurement ID is used to indicate that the cell on which signal quality measurement is performed is a neighboring cell of a current serving cell. receiving, by user equipment, UE, a measurement configuration message sent by a base station; performing, by the LTE, signal quality measurement on a cell according to a common reference signal, CRS, to obtain a measurement result, wherein the signal quality measurement comprises reference signal received power, RSRP, and/or a reference signal received quality, RSRQ, of the CRS, when a length of the received measurement configuration message sent by the base station is equal to the field length of a conventional measurement configuration message, wherein the conventional measurement configuration message does not include a field indicating a type of a reference signal; performing, by the UE according to the measurement configuration message, signal quality measurement on a cell to obtain a measurement result, wherein the signal quality measurement comprises reference signal received power, RSRP, and/or a reference signal received quality, RSRQ, of a first reference signal and RSRP and/or RSRQ of a second reference signal, when a length of the received measurement configuration message sent by the base station is not equal to the field length of the conventional measurement configuration message, and the measurement configuration message includes a field and a value of the field is used to indicate the first reference signal and the second reference signal; and sending, by the UE, the measurement result to the base station; wherein the measurement configuration message carries a measurement identity, ID, wherein the measurement ID is used to indicate that the cell on which signal quality measurement is performed is a neighboring cell of a current serving cell.