Method and device for data communication

Provided in embodiments of the present invention are a method and device for data communication. The method comprises: in a radio frame, a base station uses at least one subframe in at least one subframe set in the radio frame to receive and/or transmit specific data, where the subframe set comprises: a subframe that can be configured as an MBSFN subframe and a special subframe, the specific data comprises a network listening signal and/or data that does not need to be received by a user of an earlier version. This allows the base station to learn the maximum sets that can be configured by a system for receiving and/or transmitting the specific data and/or to learn directly the subframe position at where another base station is receiving and/or transmitting the specific data, and implements a unified design for FDD systems and TDD systems and a unified design for MBSFN subframes and special subframes, thus reducing the number of times that blind detection is required for the base station to determine the subframe position for receiving and/or transmitting the specific data.