During the computation of the spanning tree, switches discard all received data frames, as at that time the network topology is not guaranteed to be loop-free. Once that topology has been stable for some time, the switches again start to use the MAC learning algorithm to forward data frames. Only the `Root` and `Designated` ports are used to forward data frames. Switches discard all the data frames received on their `Blocked` ports and never forward frames on these ports.