What are the limitations of optimistic concurrency control?

What are the limitations of optimistic concurrency control?

Optimistic concurrency control (OCC) assumes that conflicts are rare. Its limitations include potential performance issues under high contention, increased rollback rates, and the need for a robust conflict resolution strategy.

Can you explain why high contention affects performance?

Sure! In high contention scenarios, many transactions may try to access the same data simultaneously, leading to more frequent rollbacks and retries, which can degrade performance.

What happens during a rollback?

During a rollback, the system reverts the transaction to its previous state, discarding any changes made. This ensures data integrity but can be costly in terms of time and resources.

Are there any alternatives to optimistic concurrency control?

Yes, alternatives include pessimistic concurrency control, which locks resources to prevent conflicts, and timestamp ordering, which uses timestamps to manage transaction order.

How do I choose between optimistic and pessimistic concurrency control?

Choosing between them depends on your application's workload. If conflicts are rare, OCC may be more efficient. If conflicts are frequent, pessimistic control might be better.