What is concurrency?

Concurrency in terms of databases means allowing multiple users to access the

data contained within a database at the same time. If concurrent access is not managed by the
Database Management System (DBMS) so that simultaneous operations don't interfere with
one another problems can occur when various transactions interleave, resulting in an
inconsistent database.
Concurrency is achieved by the DBMS, which interleaves actions (reads/writes of DB
objects) of various transactions. Each transaction must leave the database in a consistent state
if the DB is consistent when the transaction begins. Concurrent execution of user programs is
essential for good DBMS performance. Because disk accesses are frequent, and relatively slow,
it is important to keep the CPU humming by working on several user programs concurrently.
Interleaving actions of different user programs can lead to inconsistency: e.g., check is cleared
while account balance is being computed. DBM pretend they are using a single-user system.

Purpose of Concurrency Control

o To enforce Isolation (through mutual exclusion) among conflicting transactions.

o To preserve database consistency through consistency preserving execution of
transactions.
o 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 the A and if the other transaction
is rolled-back or waits.
Timestamp based concurrency control algorithm
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.
Basic Timestamp Ordering

1. Transaction T issues a write_item(X) operation:

 If read_TS(X) > TS(T) or if write_TS(X) > TS(T), then an younger transaction has
already read the data item so abort and roll-back T and reject the operation.
 If the condition in part (a) does not exist, then execute write_item(X) of T and set
write_TS(X) to TS(T).

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

  If write_TS(X) > TS(T), then an 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).

Strict Timestamp Ordering

1. Transaction T issues a write_item(X) operation:

 If TS(T) > read_TS(X), then delay T 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 read X has terminated
(committed or aborted).

Multiversion concurrency control techniques

This approach maintains a number of versions of a data item and allocates the right version to
a read operation of a transaction. Thus unlike other mechanisms a read operation in this
mechanism is never rejected.
Side effect:
Significantly more storage (RAM and disk) is required to maintain multiple versions. To check
unlimited growth of versions, a garbage collection is run when some criteria is satisfiedThis
approach maintains a number of versions of a data item and allocates the right version to a read
operation of a transaction.
Thus unlike other mechanisms a read operation in this mechanism is never rejected.

Multiversion technique based on timestamp ordering

Assume X1, X2, …, Xn are the version of a transactions. With each Xi a read_TS (read
timestamp) and a write_TS (write timestamp) are associated.

read_TS(Xi): The read timestamp of Xi is the largest of all the timestamps of transactions that
have successfully read version Xi.

write_TS(Xi): The write timestamp of Xi that wrote the value of version Xi.
A new version of Xi is created only by a write operation.
To ensure serializability, the following two rules are used.
1. . If transaction T issues write_item (X) and version i of X has the highest
write_TS(Xi) of all versions of X that is also less than or equal to TS(T), and read
_TS(Xi) > TS(T), then abort and roll-back T; otherwise create a new version Xi and
read_TS(X) = write_TS(Xj) = TS(T).
 2. If transaction T issues read_item (X), find the version i of X that has the highest
write_TS(Xi) of all versions of X that is also less than or equal to TS(T), then return
the value of Xi to T, and set the value of read _TS(Xi) to the largest of TS(T) and the
current read_TS(Xi).

Rule 2 guarantees that a read will never be rejected.

Multiversion Two-Phase Locking Using Certify Locks

Concept

 Allow a transaction X while T’ it to is write read locked by a data conflicting transaction

T
 This is accomplished by maintaining two versions of each data item X where one
version must always have been written by some committed transaction. This
means a write operation always creates a new version of X.

Multiversion Two-Phase Locking Using Certify Locks

n Steps

1. X is the committed version of a data item.

2. T creates a second version X’ after obt
3. Other transactions continue to read X.
4. T is ready to commit so it obtains a certify lock on X’.
5. The committed version X becomes X’.
6. T releases its certify lock on X’, which

Compatibility tables for basic 2pl and 2pl with certify locks:-

Note:

In multiversion 2PL read and write operations from conflicting transactions can be
processed concurrently.
This improves concurrency but it may delay transaction commit because of obtaining
certify locks on all its writes. It avoids cascading abort but like strict two phase locking
scheme conflicting transactions may get deadlocked.
Validation (Optimistic) Concurrency Control Schemes

In this technique only at the time of commit serializability is checked and transactions are
aborted in case of non-serializable schedules.

Three phases:
1. Read phase
2. Validation phase
3. Write phase

1. Read phase:

A transaction can read values of committed data items. However, updates are applied only to
local copies (versions) of the data items (in database cache).

2. Validation phase: Serializability is checked before transactions write their updates to the
database.

This phase for Ti checks that, for each transaction Tj that is either committed or is in its
validation phase, one of the following conditions holds:
 Tj completes its write phase before Ti starts its read phase.
 Ti starts its write phase after Tj completes its write phase, and the read_set of Ti has no
items in common with the write_set of Tj
 Both the read_set and write_set of Ti have no items in common with the write_set of
Tj, and Tj completes its read phase.
 When validating Ti, the first condition is checked first for each transaction Tj, since (1)
is the simplest condition to check. If (1) is false then (2) is checked and if (2) is false
then (3 ) is checked. If none of these conditions holds, the validation fails and Ti is
aborted.
3.Write phase: On a successful validation transaction otherwise, transactions are restarted.

Multiple Granularity
Let's start by understanding the meaning of granularity.

Granularity: It is the size of data item allowed to lock.

Multiple Granularity:

 It can be defined as hierarchically breaking up the database into blocks which can be
locked.
 The Multiple Granularity protocol enhances concurrency and reduces lock overhead.
 It maintains the track of what to lock and how to lock.
  It makes easy to decide either to lock a data item or to unlock a data item. This type of
hierarchy can be graphically represented as a tree.

For example: Consider a tree which has four levels of nodes.

 The first level or higher level shows the entire database.

 The second level represents a node of type area. The higher level database consists of
exactly these areas.
 The area consists of children nodes which are known as files. No file can be present in
more than one area.
 Finally, each file contains child nodes known as records. The file has exactly those
records that are its child nodes. No records represent in more than one file.
 Hence, the levels of the tree starting from the top level are as follows:
1. Database
2. Area
3. File
4. Record

In this example, the highest level shows the entire database. The levels below are file, record,
and fields.
There are three additional lock modes with multiple granularity:

Intention Mode Lock

Intention-shared (IS): It contains explicit locking at a lower level of the tree but only with
shared locks.

Intention-Exclusive (IX): It contains explicit locking at a lower level with exclusive or

shared locks.

Shared & Intention-Exclusive (SIX): In this lock, the node is locked in shared mode, and
some node is locked in exclusive mode by the same transaction.

Compatibility Matrix with Intention Lock Modes: The below table describes the
compatibility matrix for these lock modes:

It uses the intention lock modes to ensure serializability. It requires that if a transaction
attempts to lock a node, then that node must follow these protocols:

 Transaction T1 should follow the lock-compatibility matrix.

 Transaction T1 firstly locks the root of the tree. It can lock it in any mode.
 If T1 currently has the parent of the node locked in either IX or IS mode, then the
transaction T1 will lock a node in S or IS mode only.
 If T1 currently has the parent of the node locked in either IX or SIX modes, then the
transaction T1 will lock a node in X, SIX, or IX mode only.
 If T1 has not previously unlocked any node only, then the Transaction T1 can lock a
node.
 If T1 currently has none of the children of the node-locked only, then Transaction T1
will unlock a node.

Observe that in multiple-granularity, the locks are acquired in top-down order, and locks
must be released in bottom-up order.

 If transaction T1 reads record Ra9 in file Fa, then transaction T1 needs to lock the
database, area A1 and file Fa in IX mode. Finally, it needs to lock Ra2 in S mode.
 If transaction T2 modifies record Ra9 in file Fa, then it can do so after locking the
database, area A1 and file Fa in IX mode. Finally, it needs to lock the Ra9 in X mode.
 If transaction T3 reads all the records in file Fa, then transaction T3 needs to lock the
database, and area A in IS mode. At last, it needs to lock Fa in S mode.
 If transaction T4 reads the entire database, then T4 needs to lock the database in S
mode.