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Two-Phase Commit

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

Definition

Two-phase commit (2PC) is a synchronization protocol that solves the atomic commitment problem, a special case of the Byzantine Generals problem. Essentially, it is used in distributed database systems to ensure global atomicity of transactions in spite of site and communication failures, assuming that a failure will be, eventually, repaired and each site guarantees atomicity of transactions at its local level.

Historical Background

2PC is the simplest and most studied atomic commit protocol (ACP). It was first published in [9] and [4]. Since then, the protocol has received much attention from the academia and industry due to its importance in distributed database systems, and the research has resulted in numerous variants and optimizations for different distributed database environments. These environments include main memory databases (e.g., [10]), real-time databases (e.g., [5]), mobile database systems (e.g., [12]), heterogeneous database systems (e.g., [1]), Web...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Public Administration, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Yousef J. Al-Houmaily

  2. University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    George Samaras

Authors
  1. Yousef J. Al-Houmaily
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  2. George Samaras
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

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Al-Houmaily, Y.J., Samaras, G. (2009). Two-Phase Commit. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_713

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