Network rendering is the distribution of the rendering process across more than one machine (sometimes called a render farm). For example, you can divide an animation into smaller sequences and render each sequence on a different computer. You can also control when and on which computer to render. Rendering across a network of computers is often referred to as distributed rendering.
Using Maya, there are two ways to set up network rendering:
You can do this manually or by automation, for example, using Backburner or another third-party solution. (see Managing Maya network rendering and Network render with the render command line utility)