The invention discloses a method and apparatus for forwarding a data packet in a time-triggered network. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, calculating a time routing forwarding table according to service flow and a topological structure of the network, configuring the time routing forwarding table in a switch, when the data packet arrives, inquiring the time routing forwarding table according to an HASH operation result of a feature field in the data packet to obtain an allowable arrival time slot of the data packet and an output port number of the data packet, comparing the arrival time slot with the allowable arrival time slot of the data packet, forwarding the data packet if the arrival time slot satisfies the allowable arrival time slot, and otherwise, discarding the data packet. Compared with the prior art, the method and apparatus disclosed by the invention have the advantages of reducing the design complexity of the switch of the time-triggered network, realizing error tolerance of the network and reducing the forwarding delay of the data packet, the method and apparatus can be applied to optical fiber channel networks, Ethernet and other scenes, the nodes of the network have a communication time having time synchronization, no conflict, low delay and certainty, and the demands of aerospace, medical technology , rail transit, automobile and other fields for high-speed, real-time and fault-tolerant communication applications can be satisfied.