diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/fpm/PrefixSpan.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/fpm/PrefixSpan.scala
index e6fd05ac87b20..cbb514d467b4b 100644
--- a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/fpm/PrefixSpan.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/fpm/PrefixSpan.scala
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ class PrefixSpan private (
     private var minSupport: Double,
     private var maxPatternLength: Int) extends Logging with Serializable {
 
-  private val maxSuffixesBeforeLocalProcessing: Long = 10000
+  private val maxProjectedDBSizeBeforeLocalProcessing: Long = 10000
 
   /**
    * Constructs a default instance with default parameters
@@ -89,24 +89,19 @@ class PrefixSpan private (
     val lengthOnePatternsAndCounts = getFreqItemAndCounts(minCount, sequences)
     val prefixSuffixPairs = getPrefixSuffixPairs(
       lengthOnePatternsAndCounts.map(_._1).collect(), sequences)
-    var patternsCount: Long = lengthOnePatternsAndCounts.count()
+    prefixSuffixPairs.persist(StorageLevel.MEMORY_AND_DISK)
     var allPatternAndCounts = lengthOnePatternsAndCounts.map(x => (ArrayBuffer(x._1), x._2))
     var (smallPrefixSuffixPairs, largePrefixSuffixPairs) =
       splitPrefixSuffixPairs(prefixSuffixPairs)
-    largePrefixSuffixPairs.persist(StorageLevel.MEMORY_AND_DISK)
-    var patternLength: Int = 1
-    while (patternLength < maxPatternLength &&
-      largePrefixSuffixPairs.count() != 0) {
+    while (largePrefixSuffixPairs.count() != 0) {
       val (nextPatternAndCounts, nextPrefixSuffixPairs) =
         getPatternCountsAndPrefixSuffixPairs(minCount, largePrefixSuffixPairs)
-      patternsCount = nextPatternAndCounts.count()
       largePrefixSuffixPairs.unpersist()
-      val splitedPrefixSuffixPairs = splitPrefixSuffixPairs(nextPrefixSuffixPairs)
-      largePrefixSuffixPairs = splitedPrefixSuffixPairs._2
+      val (smallerPairsPart, largerPairsPart) = splitPrefixSuffixPairs(nextPrefixSuffixPairs)
+      largePrefixSuffixPairs = largerPairsPart
       largePrefixSuffixPairs.persist(StorageLevel.MEMORY_AND_DISK)
-      smallPrefixSuffixPairs = smallPrefixSuffixPairs ++ splitedPrefixSuffixPairs._1
-      allPatternAndCounts = allPatternAndCounts ++ nextPatternAndCounts
-      patternLength = patternLength + 1
+      smallPrefixSuffixPairs ++= smallerPairsPart
+      allPatternAndCounts ++= nextPatternAndCounts
     }
     if (smallPrefixSuffixPairs.count() > 0) {
       val projectedDatabase = smallPrefixSuffixPairs
@@ -114,7 +109,7 @@ class PrefixSpan private (
         .groupByKey()
         .map(x => (x._1.toArray, x._2.toArray))
       val nextPatternAndCounts = getPatternsInLocal(minCount, projectedDatabase)
-      allPatternAndCounts = allPatternAndCounts ++ nextPatternAndCounts
+      allPatternAndCounts ++= nextPatternAndCounts
     }
     allPatternAndCounts.map { case (pattern, count) => (pattern.toArray, count) }
   }
@@ -122,8 +117,8 @@ class PrefixSpan private (
 
   /**
    * Split prefix suffix pairs to two parts:
-   * suffixes' size less than maxSuffixesBeforeLocalProcessing and
-   * suffixes' size more than maxSuffixesBeforeLocalProcessing
+   * Prefixes with projected databases smaller than maxSuffixesBeforeLocalProcessing and
+   * Prefixes with projected databases larger than maxSuffixesBeforeLocalProcessing
    * @param prefixSuffixPairs prefix (length n) and suffix pairs,
    * @return small size prefix suffix pairs and big size prefix suffix pairs
    *         (RDD[prefix, suffix], RDD[prefix, suffix ])
@@ -134,7 +129,7 @@ class PrefixSpan private (
     val suffixSizeMap = prefixSuffixPairs
       .map(x => (x._1, x._2.length))
       .reduceByKey(_ + _)
-      .map(x => (x._2 <= maxSuffixesBeforeLocalProcessing, Set(x._1)))
+      .map(x => (x._2 <= maxProjectedDBSizeBeforeLocalProcessing, Set(x._1)))
       .reduceByKey(_ ++ _)
       .collect
       .toMap