DBMS Concurrency ControlConcurrency Control is the management procedure that is required for controlling concurrent execution of the operations that take place on a database. But before knowing about concurrency control, we should know about concurrent execution. Concurrent Execution in DBMS
Problems with Concurrent ExecutionIn a database transaction, the two main operations are READ and WRITE operations. So, there is a need to manage these two operations in the concurrent execution of the transactions as if these operations are not performed in an interleaved manner, and the data may become inconsistent. So, the following problems occur with the Concurrent Execution of the operations: Problem 1: Lost Update Problems (W - W Conflict)The problem occurs when two different database transactions perform the read/write operations on the same database items in an interleaved manner (i.e., concurrent execution) that makes the values of the items incorrect hence making the database inconsistent. For example: Consider the below diagram where two transactions TX and TY, are performed on the same account A where the balance of account A is $300.
Hence data becomes incorrect, and database sets to inconsistent. Dirty Read Problems (W-R Conflict)The dirty read problem occurs when one transaction updates an item of the database, and somehow the transaction fails, and before the data gets rollback, the updated database item is accessed by another transaction. There comes the Read-Write Conflict between both transactions. For example: Consider two transactions TX and TY in the below diagram performing read/write operations on account A where the available balance in account A is $300:
Unrepeatable Read Problem (W-R Conflict)Also known as Inconsistent Retrievals Problem that occurs when in a transaction, two different values are read for the same database item. For example: Consider two transactions, TX and TY, performing the read/write operations on account A, having an available balance = $300. The diagram is shown below:
Thus, in order to maintain consistency in the database and avoid such problems that take place in concurrent execution, management is needed, and that is where the concept of Concurrency Control comes into role. Concurrency ControlConcurrency Control is the working concept that is required for controlling and managing the concurrent execution of database operations and thus avoiding the inconsistencies in the database. Thus, for maintaining the concurrency of the database, we have the concurrency control protocols. Concurrency Control ProtocolsThe concurrency control protocols ensure the atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability and serializability of the concurrent execution of the database transactions. Therefore, these protocols are categorized as:
We will understand and discuss each protocol one by one in our next sections. Next TopicDBMS Lock based Protocol |