The invention provides a routing table issuing method. The method comprises the steps of selecting routing table items correlated to processing service of target forwarding boards from a to-be-issued routing table; and preferentially issuing or only issuing the currently selected routing table items to the target forwarding boards. According to the method and the device, the routing table items can be issued flexibly according to the processing service of the target forwarding boards, therefore, through application of the method and the device, it is determined that the routings issued to the target forwarding boards of small specifications are the routings with relatively high service correlation ratios, the service processing efficiency is improved, and the problem that in the prior art, the service processing efficiency of the boards of small specifications is relatively low due to the fact that the service independent ratios of the stored routing table items are relatively high can be solved.