PODC was first held on August 18–20, 1982, in Ottawa, Canada. PODC has grown to become one of the premier conferences on algorithms for distributed computation, including the theory, design, analysis, implementation, and application of such algorithms to domains stretching from traditional long-haul networks to mobile and sensor networks. The scope of PODC has grown to include
- distributed algorithms: design, analysis, and complexity
- communication networks: algorithms, architectures, services, protocols, applications
- multiprocessor and multi-core architectures and algorithms
- shared and transactional memory, synchronization protocols, concurrent programming
- fault-tolerance, reliability, availability, self-organization, self-stabilization
- codes and reliable communication
- Internet applications, social networks, recommendation systems
- dynamic, adaptive and machine learning based distributed algorithms
- distributed operating systems, middleware platforms, databases
- game-theoretic approaches to distributed computing
- distributed mechanisms design
- peer-to-peer systems, overlay networks, distributed data management
- high-performance, cluster, cloud and grid computing
- wireless networks, mobile computing, autonomous agents and robots
- context-aware distributed systems
- security in distributed computing, cryptographic protocols
- distributed cryptocurrencies and blockchain protocols
- quantum and optics based distributed algorithms
- nanonetworks
- biological distributed algorithms
- sensor, mesh, and ad hoc networks
- specification, semantics, verification of concurrent systems