Scalable and robust latches for database systems

Abstract

Multi-core scalability is one of the most important features for database systems running on today's hardware. Not surprisingly, the implementation of locks is paramount to achieving efficient and scalable synchronization. In this work, we identify the key database-specific requirements for lock implementations and evaluate them using both micro-benchmarks and full-fledged database workloads. The results indicate that optimistic locking has superior performance in most workloads due to its minimal overhead and latency. By complementing optimistic locking with a pessimistic shared mode lock we demonstrate that we can also process HTAP workloads efficiently. Finally, we show how lock contention can be handled gracefully without slowing down the uncontented fast path or increasing space requirements by using a lightweight parking lot infrastructure.