With the development of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), miniaturized, low-power and low-cost inertial measurement units (IMUs) have been widely integrated into mobile terminals and smart wearable devices. This provides the prospect of a broad application for the inertial sensor-based pedestrian dead-reckoning (IPDR) systems. Especially for indoor navigation and indoor positioning, the IPDR systems have many unique advantages that other methods do not have. At present, a large number of technologies and methods for IPDR systems are proposed. In this paper, we have analyzed and outlined the IPDR systems based on about 80 documents in the field of IPDR in recent years. The article is structured in the form of an introduction-elucidation-conclusion framework. First, we proposed a general framework to explore the structure of an IPDR system. Then, according to this framework, the IPDR system was divided into six relatively independent subproblems, which were discussed and summarized separately. Finally, we proposed a graph structure of IPDR systems, and a sub-directed graph, formed by selecting a combined path from the start node to the end node, skillfully constitutes a technical route of one specific IPDR system. At the end of the article, we summarized some key issues that need to be resolved before the IPDR systems are widely used.