The invention discloses a message forwarding method and device. The method includes the steps that all node devices annunciate newly-learnt local MAC addresses and a WLAN which the MAC addresses belong to towards other node devices on the control surface of a large layer-2 network through a broadcast tree which can reach all the node devices in the large layer-2 network; the node devices receive the local MAC addresses, annunciated by other node devices, of other node devices from the broadcast tree, and original MAC address forwarding table items are generated according to large layer-2 network forwarding table items generated based on a large layer-2 network protocol in advance; after the node devices receive unicast data messages on the data plane of the large layer-2 network, matching is carried out in the original MAC address forwarding table items according to the destination MAC addresses of the unicast data messages and the WLAN which the MAC addresses belong to, outcoming interfaces of the matched table items are used for forwarding the unicast data messages directly instead of conducting large layer-2 network protocol packaging. According to the message forwarding method and device, L2 unicast traffic forwarding based on the large layer-2 network is achieved.