diff --git a/kernel/locking/rwsem.c b/kernel/locking/rwsem.c
index 5532304406f7..e1840b7c5310 100644
--- a/kernel/locking/rwsem.c
+++ b/kernel/locking/rwsem.c
@@ -566,6 +566,7 @@ static noinline enum owner_state rwsem_spin_on_owner(struct rw_semaphore *sem)
 static bool rwsem_optimistic_spin(struct rw_semaphore *sem)
 {
 	bool taken = false;
+	int prev_owner_state = OWNER_NULL;
 
 	preempt_disable();
 
@@ -583,7 +584,12 @@ static bool rwsem_optimistic_spin(struct rw_semaphore *sem)
 	 *  2) readers own the lock as we can't determine if they are
 	 *     actively running or not.
 	 */
-	while (rwsem_spin_on_owner(sem) & OWNER_SPINNABLE) {
+	for (;;) {
+		enum owner_state owner_state = rwsem_spin_on_owner(sem);
+
+		if (!(owner_state & OWNER_SPINNABLE))
+			break;
+
 		/*
 		 * Try to acquire the lock
 		 */
@@ -593,13 +599,44 @@ static bool rwsem_optimistic_spin(struct rw_semaphore *sem)
 		}
 
 		/*
-		 * When there's no owner, we might have preempted between the
-		 * owner acquiring the lock and setting the owner field. If
-		 * we're an RT task that will live-lock because we won't let
-		 * the owner complete.
+		 * An RT task cannot do optimistic spinning if it cannot
+		 * be sure the lock holder is running or live-lock may
+		 * happen if the current task and the lock holder happen
+		 * to run in the same CPU. However, aborting optimistic
+		 * spinning while a NULL owner is detected may miss some
+		 * opportunity where spinning can continue without causing
+		 * problem.
+		 *
+		 * There are 2 possible cases where an RT task may be able
+		 * to continue spinning.
+		 *
+		 * 1) The lock owner is in the process of releasing the
+		 *    lock, sem->owner is cleared but the lock has not
+		 *    been released yet.
+		 * 2) The lock was free and owner cleared, but another
+		 *    task just comes in and acquire the lock before
+		 *    we try to get it. The new owner may be a spinnable
+		 *    writer.
+		 *
+		 * To take advantage of two scenarios listed agove, the RT
+		 * task is made to retry one more time to see if it can
+		 * acquire the lock or continue spinning on the new owning
+		 * writer. Of course, if the time lag is long enough or the
+		 * new owner is not a writer or spinnable, the RT task will
+		 * quit spinning.
+		 *
+		 * If the owner is a writer, the need_resched() check is
+		 * done inside rwsem_spin_on_owner(). If the owner is not
+		 * a writer, need_resched() check needs to be done here.
 		 */
-		if (!sem->owner && (need_resched() || rt_task(current)))
-			break;
+		if (owner_state != OWNER_WRITER) {
+			if (need_resched())
+				break;
+			if (rt_task(current) &&
+			   (prev_owner_state != OWNER_WRITER))
+				break;
+		}
+		prev_owner_state = owner_state;
 
 		/*
 		 * The cpu_relax() call is a compiler barrier which forces