Ring signature is a primitive that allows an entity to sign a message on behalf of a group of potential signers (called a ring) while preserving unconditional anonymity in the ring. Ring signature has found many applications in fair exchange, electronic transaction protocols, and ad hoc networks. In this paper, a survey of ring signature from a number of perspectives is presented to provide researchers with a better understanding of this primitive. We survey the state-of-the-art of ring signature schemes along with the security model, and compare their security properties and efficiency. Furthermore, the extensions of ring signature schemes with special properties are also investigated.