Issues of correctness in database concurrency control by locking
Mihalis Yannakakis · 1981
Our aim in this paper is to show that there is a mathematically inherent reason why existing systems enforce D-serializability (rather than just because of its simplicity): it is because they are based on locking. Our main result is a characterization of the power of locking which states that if a locking policy is safe then it must allow only D-serializable schedules. Furthermore any such schedule can be produced by some safe locking policy.