Depends on where you draw the line for "human wave attack". By modern definitions it is simply "a frontal assault by densely concentrated infantry formations against an enemy line, without any attempts to shield or to mask the attacker's movement". (O'Dowd, Edward C. Chinese Military Strategy in the Third Indochina War). By this definition just about any heavy infantry attack column in history is a "human wave attack". These are usually not included in the definition because it lack relevance if it is indistinguishable from a normal attack.

Human wave attacks are usually seen in contrast to modern infantry warfare which, depending on which era we look at, usually has other tactics for breaching an enemy line (hutier tactics in WW1, armored spearheads in WW2 etc). It could be argued that some of the large scale attacks of WW1 were in fact human wave attacks but the term is most frequent in reference to the Korean war, the Sino-Vietnamese war, the Vietnam war and the Iran-Iraq War.

Human wave attacks are typically used when you have superior numbers but inferior firepower, training or positions. In general terms, the goal of a human wave attack is to neutralize the enemys advantage in firepower or position by closing to melee (or near enough) range as quickly as possible in order to win by weight of numbers.

The Iranian Basij are perhaps the best example of how human wave attacks can be used to their full advantage. The basij were a kind of volunteer militia or irregulars made up of Iranian volunteers, the often lacked formal military training and heavy weapons but they were highly motivated and numerous.

For the most part, a human wave attack is aimed at a weak spot in a line in order to minimize the opposition and potential firepower. In the case of the Basiji, they would cause a breech in the line through which regular army units could move to attack a line from the rear.

Good examples of the Basiji attacking in human waves are Operation Jerusalem way (the first use of Basij human wave tactics), Operation Undeniable Victory (where regular forces were inserted behind enemy lines by helicopter to neutralize key rear area points like artillery and staff) and Operation Jerusalem.

A word of caution might also be in order, for a defender, it can be very difficult to separate a concentrated attack regular forces from a "human wave attack", this is, in my opinion, the case in the Korean war. The chinese intention was never to use human wave attacks but to use persistent fire team attacks against weak spots in the UN lines to achieve breakthrough.

100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present - Davis, Paul K.