A terminal device receives a DMRS and data from a network device. The DMRS and the data undergo Alamouti coding in space domain and frequency domain, or the DMRS and the data undergo Alamouti coding in space domain and time domain, and a DMRS obtained through the Alamouti coding is mapped to a first DMRS port and a second DMRS port. A modulation symbol of the first DMRS port is related to a modulation symbol of the second DMRS port. The terminal device demodulates the data based on the DMRS. Therefore, the DMRS corresponds to a transmission scheme of the data, to help the terminal device demodulate the data. This can reduce interference estimation complexity of the terminal device.