Lecture 5

Concurrency Control Techniques

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Outline
 Databases Concurrency Control
1. Purpose of Concurrency Control
2. Two-Phase locking
3. Limitations of CCMs
4. Index Locking
5. Lock Compatibility Matrix
6. Lock Granularity

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 3

Purpose of Concurrency Control
 To enforce Isolation (through mutual exclusion) among
conflicting transactions.
 To preserve database consistency through consistency
preserving execution of transactions.
 To resolve read-write and write-write conflicts.

 Example:
 In concurrent execution environment if T1 conflicts with T2
over a data item A, then the existing concurrency control
decides if T1 or T2 should get A and if the other transaction
is rolled-back or waits.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 4

Two-Phase Locking Techniques
 Locking is an operation which secures
 (a) permission to Read
 (b) permission to Write a data item for a transaction.
 Example:
 Lock (X). Data item X is locked on behalf of the requesting
transaction.
 Unlocking is an operation which removes these
permissions from the data item.
 Example:
 Unlock (X): Data item X is made available to all other
transactions.
 Lock and Unlock are Atomic operations.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 5

 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
Essential components
 Two locks modes:
 (a) shared (read) (b) exclusive (write).
 Shared mode: shared lock (X)
 More than one transaction can apply share lock on X for
reading its value but no write lock can be applied on X by
any other transaction.
 Exclusive mode: Write lock (X)
 Only one write lock on X can exist at any time and no
shared lock can be applied by any other transaction on X.
 Conflict matrix
Read Write
Read

Y N
Write

N N

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 6

 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
Essential components
 Lock Manager:
 Managing locks on data items.

 Lock table:
 Lock manager uses it to store the identify of
transaction locking a data item, the data item, lock
mode and pointer to the next data item locked.
One simple way to implement a lock table is
through linked list.

Transaction ID Data item id lock mode Ptr to next data item

T1 X1 Read Next
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 7
 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
Essential components

 Database requires that all transactions should be

well-formed. A transaction is well-formed if:

 It must lock the data item before it reads or writes to

it.

 It must not lock an already locked data items and it

must not try to unlock a free data item.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 8

 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
Essential components

 The following code performs the lock operation:

B:if LOCK (X) = 0 (*item is unlocked*) then

LOCK (X)  1 (*lock the item*)
else begin
wait (until lock (X) = 0) and
the lock manager wakes up the transaction);
goto B
end;

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 9

 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
Essential components

 The following code performs the unlock operation:

LOCK (X)  0 (*unlock the item*)

if any transactions are waiting then
wake up one of the waiting transactions;

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 10

 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
Essential components
 The following code performs the read operation:

B: if LOCK (X) = “unlocked” then

begin LOCK (X)  “read-locked”;
no_of_reads (X)  1;
end
else if LOCK (X)  “read-locked” then
no_of_reads (X)  no_of_reads (X) +1
else begin wait (until LOCK (X) = “unlocked” and
the lock manager wakes up the transaction);
go to B
end;

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 11

 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
Essential components

 The following code performs the write lock operation:

B: if LOCK(X) = “unlocked” then

LOCK(X) ← “write-locked”
else begin wait (until LOCK(X) = “unlocked” and
the lock manager wakes up the transaction);
go to B
end;

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 12

 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
Essential components
 The following code performs the unlock operation:

if LOCK (X) = “write-locked” then

begin LOCK (X)  “unlocked”;
wakes up one of the transactions, if any
end
else if LOCK (X)  “read-locked” then
begin
no_of_reads (X)  no_of_reads (X) -1
if no_of_reads (X) = 0 then
begin
LOCK (X) = “unlocked”;
wake up one of the transactions, if any
end
end;

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 13

 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
The algorithm
 Two Phases:
 (a) Locking (Growing)

 (b) Unlocking (Shrinking).

 Locking (Growing) Phase:

 A transaction applies locks (read or write) on desired data items

one at a time.

 Unlocking (Shrinking) Phase:

 A transaction unlocks its locked data items one at a time.

 Requirement:
 For a transaction these two phases must be mutually exclusively,

that is, during locking phase unlocking phase must not start and
during unlocking phase locking phase must not begin.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 15

 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
The algorithm

T1 T2 Result
read_lock (Y); read_lock (X); Initial values: X=20; Y=30
read_item (Y); read_item (X); Result of serial execution
unlock (Y); unlock (X); T1 followed by T2
write_lock (X); Write_lock (Y); X=50, Y=80.
read_item (X); read_item (Y); Result of serial execution
X:=X+Y; Y:=X+Y; T2 followed by T1
write_item (X); write_item (Y); X=70, Y=50
unlock (X); unlock (Y);

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 16

 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
The Algorithm
Two-Phase Locking Techniques: The algorithm

T1 T2 Result
read_lock (Y); X=50; Y=50
read_item (Y); Nonserializable because it.
unlock (Y); violated two-phase policy.
read_lock (X);
read_item (X);
Time unlock (X);
write_lock (Y);
read_item (Y);
Y:=X+Y;
write_item (Y);
unlock (Y);
write_lock (X);
read_item (X);
X:=X+Y;
write_item (X);
unlock (X);

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 17

Two-Phase Locking Techniques: The
algorithm

T’1 T’2
read_lock (Y); read_lock (X); T1 and T2 follow two-phase
read_item (Y); read_item (X); policy but they are subject to
write_lock (X); Write_lock (Y); deadlock, which must be
unlock (Y); unlock (X); dealt with.
read_item (X); read_item (Y);
X:=X+Y; Y:=X+Y;
write_item (X); write_item (Y);
unlock (X); unlock (Y);

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 18

 Two-Phase Locking Techniques:
The algorithm

 Two-phase policy generates two locking algorithms

 (a) Basic

 (b) Conservative

 Conservative:
 Prevents deadlock by locking all desired data items before
transaction begins execution.
 Basic:
 Transaction locks data items incrementally. This may cause
deadlock which is dealt with.
 Strict:
 A more stricter version of Basic algorithm where unlocking is
performed after a transaction terminates (commits or aborts and
rolled-back).
 This is the most commonly used two-phase locking algorithm.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 19

Dealing with Deadlock and Starvation

 Deadlock
T’1 T’2
read_lock (Y); T1 and T2 did follow two-phase
read_item (Y); policy but they are deadlock
read_lock (X);
read_item (Y);
write_lock (X);
(waits for X) write_lock (Y);
(waits for Y)

 Deadlock (T’1 and T’2)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 20

Deadlock prevention

 A transaction locks all data items it refers to

before it begins execution.

 This way of locking prevents deadlock since a

transaction never waits for a data item.

 The conservative two-phase locking uses this

approach.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 21

Deadlock Detection and Resolution
 In this approach, deadlocks are allowed to happen.
 The scheduler maintains a wait-for-graph for detecting
cycle.
 If a cycle exists, then one transaction involved in the cycle is
selected (victim) and rolled-back.

 A wait-for-graph is created using the lock table.

 As soon as a transaction is blocked, it is added to the
graph.
 When a chain like: Ti waits for Tj waits for Tk waits for Ti or
Tj occurs, then this creates a cycle.
 One of the transaction is selected and rolled back.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 22

Deadlock Avoidance

 There are many variations of two-phase locking

algorithm.
 Some avoid deadlock by not letting the cycle to
complete.
 That is as soon as the algorithm discovers that blocking
a transaction is likely to create a cycle, it rolls back the
transaction.
 Wound-Wait and Wait-Die algorithms use timestamps to
avoid deadlocks by rolling-back victim.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 23

Starvation
 Starvation occurs when a particular transaction
consistently waits or restarted and never gets a chance to
proceed further.
 In a deadlock resolution it is possible that the same
transaction may consistently be selected as victim and
rolled-back.
 This limitation is inherent in all priority based scheduling
mechanisms.
 In Wound-Wait scheme a younger transaction may always
be wounded (aborted) by a long running older transaction
which may create starvation.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 24

Timestamp Based Concurrency Control
 Timestamp
 A monotonically increasing variable (integer) indicating
the age of an operation or a transaction. A larger
timestamp value indicates a more recent event or
operation.
 Timestamp based algorithm uses timestamp to serialize
the execution of concurrent transactions.
 Transaction Timestamp TS(T′) is a unique identifier
assigned to each transaction.
 The algorithm associates with each database item X has
two timestamp (TS) values: read_TS(X) and write_TS(X)
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 25
The Timestamp Ordering Algorithm for
Concurrency Control
 read_TS(X).
 The read timestamp of item X is the largest timestamp

among all the timestamps of transactions that have

successfully read item X
 that is, read_TS(X) = TS(T), where T is the youngest

transaction that has read X successfully.

 write_TS(X).
 The write timestamp of item X is the largest of all the

timestamps of transactions that have successfully written

item X
 that is, write_TS(X) = TS(T), where T is the youngest

transaction that has written X successfully.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 27
Basic Timestamp Ordering
1. Whenever a transaction T issues a write_item(X)
operation, the following check is performed:
 If read_TS(X) > TS(T) or if write_TS(X) > TS(T), then a
younger transaction has already read the data item so abort
and roll-back T and reject the operation.
 If the above condition does not exist, then execute
write_item(X) of T and set write_TS(X) to TS(T).

2. Whenever a transaction T issues a read_item(X)

operation, the following check is performed::
 If write_TS(X) > TS(T), then a younger transaction has already
written to the data item so abort and roll-back T and reject the
operation.
 If write_TS(X)  TS(T), then execute read_item(X) of T and set
read_TS(X) to the larger of TS(T) and the current read_TS(X).

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 28

Timestamp Based Concurrency Control
 Wait-die.
 If TS(Ti) < TS(Tj), then (Ti older than Tj) Ti is
allowed to wait;
 otherwise (Ti younger than Tj) abort Ti (Ti dies)
and restart it later with the same timestamp.
 ■ Wound-wait.
 If TS(Ti) < TS(Tj), then (Ti older than Tj) abort Tj (Ti
wounds Tj) and restart it later with the same
timestamp;
 otherwise (Ti younger than Tj) Ti is allowed to wait.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 29

Strict Timestamp Ordering
1. Transaction T issues a write_item(X) operation:
 If TS(T) > read_TS(X), then delay T until the
transaction T’ that wrote or read X has terminated
(committed or aborted).

2. Transaction T issues a read_item(X) operation:

 If TS(T) > write_TS(X), then delay T until the
transaction T’ that wrote or read X has terminated
(committed or aborted).

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 30

Thomas’s Write Rule
1. If read_TS(X) > TS(T) then abort and roll-back T
and reject the operation.

2. If write_TS(X) > TS(T), then just ignore the write

operation and continue execution. This is
because the most recent writes counts in case
of two consecutive writes.

3. If the conditions given in 1 and 2 above do not

occur, then execute write_item(X) of T and set
write_TS(X) to TS(T).
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 31
Granularity of Data Items
 A lockable unit of data defines its granularity.
 Granularity can be coarse (entire database) or it can be
fine (a tuple or an attribute of a relation).
 Data item granularity significantly affects concurrency
control performance.
 Thus, the degree of concurrency is low for coarse
granularity and high for fine granularity.
 Example of data item granularity:
1. A field of a database record (an attribute of a tuple)
2. A database record (a tuple or a relation)
3. A disk block
4. An entire file
5. The entire database
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 44
Granularity of Data Items
 The following diagram illustrates a hierarchy of
granularity from coarse (database) to fine
(record).

DB

f1 f2

p11 p12 ... p1n p11 p12 ... p1n

r111 ... r11j r111 ... r11j r111 ... r11j r111 ... r11j r111 ... r11j r111 ... r11j

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 45

Multiple Granularity Locking
 To manage such hierarchy, in addition to read and write,
three additional locking modes, called intention lock
modes are defined:
 Intention-shared (IS): indicates that a shared lock(s) will be
requested on some descendent nodes(s).
 Intention-exclusive (IX): indicates that an exclusive lock(s)
will be requested on some descendent node(s).
 Shared-intention-exclusive (SIX): indicates that the
current node is locked in shared mode but an exclusive
lock(s) will be requested on some descendent nodes(s).

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 46

Multiple Granularity Locking
 These locks are applied using the following
compatibility matrix:
IS IX S SIX X
IS yes yes yes yes no
IX yes yes no no no
S yes no yes no no
SIX yes no no no no
X no no no no no
IS - Intention-shared
IX - Intention-exclusive
SIX - Shared-intention-exclusive
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 47
 Multiple Granularity Locking
 The set of rules which must be followed for producing serializable
schedule are
1. The lock compatibility must adhered to.
2. The root of the tree must be locked first, in any mode..
3. A node N can be locked by a transaction T in S or IX mode only if
the parent node is already locked by T in either IS or IX mode.
4. A node N can be locked by T in X, IX, or SIX mode only if the
parent of N is already locked by T in either IX or SIX mode.
5. T can lock a node only if it has not unlocked any node (to enforce
2PL policy).
6. T can unlock a node, N, only if none of the children of N are
currently locked by T.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 48

 Multiple Granularity Locking
An example of a serializable execution
T1 T2 T3
IX(db)
IX(f1)
IX(db)
IS(db)
IS(f1)
IS(p11)
IX(p11)
X(r111)
IX(f1)
X(p12)
S(r11j)
IX(f2)
IX(p21)
IX(r211)
Unlock (r211)
Unlock (p21)
Unlock (f2)
S(f2)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 49

 Multiple Granularity Locking
An example of a serializable execution

T1 T2 T3
unlock(p12)
unlock(f1)
unlock(db)
unlock(r111)
unlock(p11)
unlock(f1)
unlock(db)
unlock (r111j)
unlock (p11)
unlock (f1)
unlock(f2)
unlock(db)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 50

Summary
 Databases Concurrency Control
1. Purpose of Concurrency Control
2. Two-Phase locking
3. Limitations of CCMs
4. Index Locking
5. Lock Compatibility Matrix
6. Lock Granularity

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 18- 51