I was reading about "Index contention" and found the below explanation:
Oracle b-tree indexes are “right-handed” and the right-hand leafs of the b-tree contain the highest key in the lowest tree level.
Index leaf node contention happens when rows are inserted based on a user generated key (i.e. a sequence) and because the sequence key is always the high order key, each insert of a low-level index tree node must propagate upwards to the high-key indicators in the b-tree index.
Are there any other disadvantages of oracle b-tree indexes being right handed?
And what could be the other reasons for index contention/insertion contention?
My question was specifically for oracle b-tree indexes and not about what "index contention" actually is. Although would like to add few more points to my question and hence answering it.
Index leaf node contention happens when rows are inserted based on a user generated key (i.e. a sequence) and because the sequence key is always the high order key, each insert of a low-level index tree node must propagate upwards to the high-key indicators in the b-tree index.
There are three techniques that are used to relieve this index contention issue: