diff --git a/vmm/src/lib.rs b/vmm/src/lib.rs
index 311ec84b8..be9ebf929 100644
--- a/vmm/src/lib.rs
+++ b/vmm/src/lib.rs
@@ -892,7 +892,7 @@ impl Vmm {
             },
             Configured(memory_manager, guest_memory) => match req.command() {
                 Command::Memory => {
-                    self.vm_receive_memory(req, socket, &guest_memory)?;
+                    migration_transport::receive_memory_ranges(&guest_memory, req, socket)?;
                     Ok(Configured(memory_manager, guest_memory))
                 }
                 Command::State => {
@@ -1070,18 +1070,6 @@ impl Vmm {
         Ok(())
     }
 
-    fn vm_receive_memory(
-        &mut self,
-        req: &Request,
-        socket: &mut SocketStream,
-        guest_mem: &GuestMemoryAtomic<GuestMemoryMmap>,
-    ) -> std::result::Result<(), MigratableError> {
-        let table = MemoryRangeTable::read_from(socket, req.length())?;
-
-        // And then the memory itself
-        migration_transport::receive_memory_ranges(guest_mem, &table, socket)
-    }
-
     /// Performs the initial memory transmission (iteration zero) plus a
     /// variable number of memory iterations with the goal to eventually migrate
     /// the VM in a reasonably small downtime.
diff --git a/vmm/src/migration_transport.rs b/vmm/src/migration_transport.rs
index cda22dfac..629412214 100644
--- a/vmm/src/migration_transport.rs
+++ b/vmm/src/migration_transport.rs
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ use vm_memory::{
     Bytes, GuestAddress, GuestAddressSpace, GuestMemoryAtomic, ReadVolatile, VolatileMemoryError,
     VolatileSlice, WriteVolatile,
 };
-use vm_migration::protocol::{MemoryRangeTable, Request, Response};
+use vm_migration::protocol::{Command, MemoryRangeTable, Request, Response};
 use vm_migration::{MigratableError, Snapshot};
 
 use crate::{GuestMemoryMmap, VmMigrationConfig};
@@ -366,12 +366,17 @@ pub(crate) fn send_memory_ranges(
     )
 }
 
-/// Receive memory contents for the given range table into guest memory.
+/// Receive memory contents for the given request and copy it into guest memory.
 pub(crate) fn receive_memory_ranges(
     guest_memory: &GuestMemoryAtomic<GuestMemoryMmap>,
-    ranges: &MemoryRangeTable,
+    req: &Request,
     socket: &mut SocketStream,
 ) -> Result<(), MigratableError> {
+    debug_assert_eq!(req.command(), Command::Memory);
+    // Read the memory table
+    let ranges = MemoryRangeTable::read_from(socket, req.length())?;
+
+    // And then the memory itself
     let mem = guest_memory.memory();
 
     for range in ranges.regions() {