As a new method for studying complex systems and problems,supernetworks begin to attract close attention after the research boom on complex network,meanwhile it is widely used to solve practical problems.The basic concepts,characters,and models of supernetworks were introduced.The research methodology based on variational inequality,hypergraph and systems science was summurized,and the research status was reviewed respectively.The applications of supernetworks to network equilibrium,knowledge network expression and robustness study were described,and the statistic characteristics were discussed.The inadequacy in the research on supernetwork at present was pointed out and the future work was discussed.