diff --git a/rw_core/core/adapter/agent.go b/rw_core/core/adapter/agent.go
index 3490081..7189cff 100644
--- a/rw_core/core/adapter/agent.go
+++ b/rw_core/core/adapter/agent.go
@@ -48,14 +48,14 @@
 // No attempt is made to save the time to the db, so only recent times are guaranteed to be accurate.
 func (aa *agent) updateCommunicationTime(new time.Time) {
 	// only update if new time is not in the future, and either the old time is invalid or new time > old time
+	aa.lock.Lock()
+	defer aa.lock.Unlock()
 	if last, err := ptypes.Timestamp(aa.adapter.LastCommunication); !new.After(time.Now()) && (err != nil || new.After(last)) {
 		timestamp, err := ptypes.TimestampProto(new)
 		if err != nil {
 			return // if the new time cannot be encoded, just ignore it
 		}
 
-		aa.lock.Lock()
-		defer aa.lock.Unlock()
 		aa.adapter.LastCommunication = timestamp
 	}
 }
diff --git a/rw_core/utils/request_queue.go b/rw_core/utils/request_queue.go
index 2c95e23..c96a6a0 100644
--- a/rw_core/utils/request_queue.go
+++ b/rw_core/utils/request_queue.go
@@ -88,7 +88,12 @@
 		return ctx.Err()
 
 	case <-waitingOn:
-		// lock is acquired
+		// Previous request has signaled that it is complete.
+		// This request now can proceed as the active
+		// request
+
+		rq.mutex.Lock()
+		defer rq.mutex.Unlock()
 		rq.current = r
 		return nil
 	}