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)