Identity-based cryptosystems were introduced to overcome one of the main problems in public key encryption, the generation of public and private keys. In the identity-based cryptosystem, an identifier such as an e-mail address of a user can be used to generate public and private keys by a trusted third party. The trusted third party uses a system-wide master secret to provide private keys to a user. Identity-based cryptosystems can be constructed using the idea of pairings. This article discusses four different identity-based cryptosystems: the Boneh-Franklin scheme, the Cock's scheme, the Authenticated IBE scheme and the Hierarchical IBE scheme. This article also discusses the security notions considered for the identity-based cryptosystem. The security notions considered are: one-wayness, indistinguishability, semantic security and non-malleability. An architecture consisting of a public parameter server and private key generator for the implementation of the identity-based cryptosystems is also discussed.