In the foregoing method procedure, the LCP priority of the first MAC CE including the channel quality information may be preconfigured. When sending the message 3, the terminal device determines, based on the LCP priority of the first MAC CE, whether to multiplex the first MAC CE into the message 3. When the TBS of the message 3 is relatively large, or the LCP priority of the first MAC CE is relatively high, the terminal device may send the first MAC CE through the message 3. In this way, a probability of successfully sending the channel quality information is increased, and efficiency of sending the channel quality information is further improved.

In this embodiment of this application, the LCP priority of the first MAC CE may be configured by the network device, may be preset, or may be determined by the terminal device. The LCP priority of the first MAC CE may be determined according to an actual situation. For example, the LCP priority of the first MAC CE may be higher than an LCP priority of a second MAC CE, and the second MAC CE is a MAC CE including a padding buffer status report (BSR).

Because the padding BSR is sent by using an idle bit when the idle bit exists in the message 3, the LCP priority of the second MAC CE carrying the padding BSR may be lower than the LCP priority of the first MAC CE.

In a first possible scenario, the terminal device needs to preferentially send uplink data. For example, when the terminal device needs to send the message 3 in the uplink EDT, the terminal device determines that the uplink data needs to be preferentially sent. Certainly, the foregoing description is merely an example. The terminal device may alternatively determine, according to another case, whether the terminal device needs to preferentially send the uplink data.