A routing method, applied to a network in which control is separated from forwarding, wherein the network comprises a control device and a forwarding device, and the method comprises: Determining, by the control device, at least three paths for a data flow, and generating a first group entry and a flow entry for the data flow, wherein the at least three paths are paths between the forwarding device and a destination forwarding device; and Sending, by the control device, the flow entry and the first group entry to the forwarding device, wherein the flow entry is used to instruct the forwarding device to perform an operation of going to the first group entry when the data flow is matched, and the first group entry is used to instruct the forwarding device to set a first path and a second path in the at least three paths as load-sharing paths and set a third path in the at least three paths as a reroute protection path for the first path and the second path, wherein the first group entry comprises a first group type field and a first action bucket field, the first group type field is used to indicate that a current group is a scenario comprising the load-sharing paths and the reroute protection path, and the first action bucket field comprises a first sub action bucket, a second sub action bucket, and a third sub action bucket, the first sub action bucket indicates that the first path is a load-sharing path for the data flow and that the forwarding state of the first path is active, the second sub action bucket indicates that the second path is a load-sharing path for the data flow and that the forwarding state of the second path is active, and the third sub action bucket indicates that the third path is a rerouting path when one of the load-sharing path fails and that the forwarding state of the third path is inactive. Determining, by the control device, at least three paths for a data flow, and generating a first group entry and a flow entry for the data flow, wherein the at least three paths are paths between the forwarding device and a destination forwarding device; and Sending, by the control device, the flow entry and the first group entry to the forwarding device, wherein the flow entry is used to instruct the forwarding device to perform an operation of going to the first group entry when the data flow is matched, and the first group entry is used to instruct the forwarding device to set a first path and a second path in the at least three paths as load-sharing paths and set a third path in the at least three paths as a reroute protection path for the first path and the second path, wherein the first group entry comprises a first group type field and a first action bucket field, the first group type field is used to indicate that a current group is a scenario comprising the load-sharing paths and the reroute protection path, and the first action bucket field comprises a first sub action bucket, a second sub action bucket, and a third sub action bucket, the first sub action bucket indicates that the first path is a load-sharing path for the data flow and that the forwarding state of the first path is active, the second sub action bucket indicates that the second path is a load-sharing path for the data flow and that the forwarding state of the second path is active, and the third sub action bucket indicates that the third path is a rerouting path when one of the load-sharing path fails and that the forwarding state of the third path is inactive.