Queuing theory is the mathematical study of waiting lines in systems where demand for service exceeds the available resources. Key concepts include the patterns of arrivals and service, number of servers, queue discipline, size of the waiting area, and population size. Queuing models use notation like M/M/1 to describe characteristics like exponentially distributed inter-arrival and service times with a single server. Important metrics include the average number of customers in line and in the system, the average wait time, probability of idle servers, and server utilization. Little's law relates these metrics for systems in equilibrium.