Reader Bias Based Locking Technique Enabling High Read Concurrency For Read-Mostly Workloads

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

• determining, by a first writer of a plurality of data accessors which includes at least the first writer and at least one reader, that a flag associated with a data object on which a write operation is to be performed by the first writer is set to a first value, wherein the first value indicates that a read operation on the data object can be performed without acquiring a lock associated with the data object;
• computing, by the first writer based on one or more metrics associated with the write operation, a duration during which readers are to be prevented from performing read operations on the data object without acquiring the lock;
• and
• causing, by the first writer, the flag to be set to a second value for at least the duration, wherein the second value indicates that the lock has to be acquired to perform a read operation on the data object.

A system, comprising:

• one or more computing devices;
• wherein the one or more computing devices include instructions that upon execution on or across the one or more computing devices:
• determine, by a first writer of a plurality of data accessors which includes at least the first writer and at least one reader, that a flag associated with a data object on which a write operation is to be performed by the first writer is set to a first value, wherein the first value indicates that a read operation on the data object can be performed without acquiring a lock associated with the data object;
• compute, by the first writer based on one or more metrics associated with the write operation, a duration during which readers are to be prevented from performing read operations on the data object without acquiring the lock;
• and
• cause, by the first writer, the flag to be set to a second value for at least the duration, wherein the second value indicates that the lock has to be acquired to perform a read operation on the data object.

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

• obtaining, by one or more readers of a plurality of data accessors, read access to a first data object without acquiring a first lock on the first data object;
• determining, by a writer of the plurality of data accessors, whose write is directed to the first data object, that the write is to be deferred until the one or more readers have completed respective read operations on the first data object;
• and
• causing, by the writer, based at least in part on said determining, another reader of the plurality of data accessors to acquire the first lock to obtain read access to the first data object.