Applications of queues

• Within computer systems, queues have many uses. For example, print tasks are stored on a print queue while waiting to be printed.
• When a set of tasks are waiting to be executed, a priority queue will be used to ensure that they are executed in the appropriate order.
• Simulations often make use of queues. A simulation for a proposed road scheme could model the behaviour of traffic queueing at junctions. A supermarket simulation could model the waiting times for customers queuing at a checkout.
• In an operating system, processes wait in a ready queue until they can run on the CPU. The scheduler selects which process is next to execute from this queue.