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A public-key infrastructure (PKI) is a system for the creation, storage, and distribution of digital certificates which are used to verify that a particular public key belongs to a certain entity. The PKI creates digital certificates which map public keys to entities, securely stores these certificates in a central repository and revokes them if needed
It is based on Asymmetric-Key cryptography algorithm, where each user has two paired-keys, one is know by all users and is called "Public Key" and the other one is secret and known only by its owner and is called "Private Key", these two keys have to be issued using a trusted secured authority which is called the Certification Authority.
So, simply and without more details, PKI is a set of Certification Authorities used within a domain to create, issue, manage and revoke digital certificates for users or services so they can have a secured data transmission.
