Initially, every ‘n’ seconds, vBNG 1 457 sends heartbeat message to NRM 441 (402). Similarly, every ‘n’ seconds, vBNG N 461A sends heartbeat message to NRM 441 (404). Said differently, each of vBNG instance of vBNG 1 457 and vBNG N 461A may periodically output network health information to the BNG controller and NRM 441 may periodically receive health data of each vBNG instance of vBNG 1 457 and vBNG N 461A.