A unified theory of

-ports

with

or

circuit elements (without ideal transformers) has been described. The essential parts are the theory of the

function

; the realization of

functions by ladder networks; the two-ports specified by the general characteristic equation (GCE)

, or the sum of transmitted, reflected, and dissipated powers equals the maximum delivered power; the introduction of pseudoattenuation poles; the deformation of the curve of an

function; the principles of rearrangement of the GCE; and the reduction of an

-port to

two-ports. Simultaneously prescribed transfer (apart from a constant) and reflection factors are realized 1) by a ladder network for attenuation poles (AP) in the closed left-half

plane, and 2) by parallel-connected networks for AP in the open right-half

plane. Without the restriction to a minimum number of circuit elements, perfect coupling of a transformer in case 1) can be avoided. Case 2) requires a superfluous number of circuit elements, but consists of no transformer and can be applied to case 1). Case 2) is valid for

networks and case 1) may be extended to

networks. In case 1), an equivalent circuit of a physical system can be absorbed in the network without disturbing the prescribed frequency characteristic, and the values of circuit elements of the ladder network are explicit functions in

, and their first derivatives with respect to

at AP. These facilitate the application of network theory to the field of distributed circuit elements. In case 2), the values of circuit elements for realizing a prescribed voltage transfer factor can be expressed as functions of the coefficients of

and

; thus the computations are simplified. The possibility is mentioned of extensions of this theory, such as the ladder network without transformer- s, etc.