How to convert ReentrantReadWriteLock logic to LMAX Disruptor with barriers

Question

I have a shared collection an ArrayList and also i use a ReentrantReadWriteLock lock to secure the entering on a critical area from different threads. My threads are three a writer,read,delete thread. i acquire the correct lock on each case. The logic is that i insert data to ArrayList, read them when necessary, and also when the timer reaches limits delete some entries. The process runs smoothly and everything is perfect.

My question now is can i transfer the above logic somehow and implemented it with an LMAX disruptor in order to avoid lock overheads and improve performance. If yes can you describe me an ideal case and if you are able to also post code i would really appreciate it.

i assume that instead of ArrayList data will be entered in ringbuffer and i will have 2 producers write, delete, and a consumer for read. Also i must make sure that i use producer barriers. Will the performance will be increased from lock case. i am not sure if i understand everything correctly please help me and give me directions?

Answer 1

If your shared state is the ArrayList and you have one thread that is reading and processing the elements in the ArrayList and you want the updates to that shared state synchronised then usually the ArrayList would be owned by one EventHandler that processes events such as Process, Write, Delete and updates and processes the shared state.

This would all run on one thread but that pretty much is what is happening now as you cannot Read at the same time as Writing/Deleting.

As you only have one reading thread there is not much to be gained from using a ReadWriteLock as you will never have concurrent reads.