We consider the problem of quality of service (QoS) routing in multi-hop wireless networks where data are transmitted from a source node to a destination node via multiple hops. The routing component of a QoS-routing algorithm essentially involves the link and path metric calculation which depends on many factors such as the physical and link layer designs of the underlying wireless network, transmission errors due to channel fading and interference, etc. The task of link metric calculation basically requires us to solve a tandem queueing problem which is the focus of this paper. We present a unified tandem queue framework which is applicable for many different physical layer designs. We present both exact and approximated decomposition approaches. Using the queueing framework, we can derive different performance measures, namely, end-to-end loss rate, end-to-end average delay, and end-to-end delay distribution. The proposed decomposition approach is validated and some interesting insights into the system performance are highlighted. We then present how to use the decomposition queueing approach to calculate the link metric and incorporate this into the route discovery process of the QoS routing algorithm. The extension of the queueing and QoS routing framework to wireless networks with class-based queueing for QoS differentiation is also presented.