360 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 33, NO.

4, NOVEMBER 1990

A General n-Port Network Reciprocity Theorem

WAI-KAI CHEN, FELLOW, IEEE, AND RUN-SHENG LIANG

Abstraet-A general expression for an n-port network reciprocity

theorem is given, which includes the conventional two-port reciprocity
theorem as a special case. The proof is based directly on Tellegen’s
theorem.

I. INTRODUCTION
i10
6-“1
4
1’

T HE conventional two-port network reciprocity theo-

rem is not only very useful in the analysis and design
of systems but also in measurements. In the present paper,
we generalize the reciprocity theorem for a two-port net-
work to that for an n-port network. The result is signifi-
cant in that not only is the expression itself simple and
compact, but it is also general in the broad sense.

11. THE MAINRESULT +

In this section, we state and prove a general n-port net- I l b

work reciprocity theorem.

1’
Theorem: For a linear, time-invariant, passive, n-port
network in zero-state composed of resistors, inductors, +
coupled inductors and capacitors, its port currents ik and I
ik and port voltages v k and f i k under two different excita-
tions satisfy the relation
n n

The port currents i k and ?k and the port voltages v k and

fikunder-two different excitations are depicted in Fig. 1. (b)
If i and i denote the port current vectors, and if v and it Fig. 1. An n-port network under two sets of excitations.
denote the port voltage vectors, (1) can be rewritten, in
matrix form, as
tions
iTi, =
(2) n b

where the superscript T denotes the matrix transpose.

To show that (1) holds, let N be such a network con- n b
taining b branches, whose branch currents are i;, i;, , ---
ii and whose branch voltage are vi, U ; , -
, U;. For our
purposes, assume that each port of N is excited by a cur-
rent source as shown in Fig. l . The current and voltage
references are as indicated in the figure. Appealing to Tel-
legen’s theorem [ l ] , [2], the port currents and the port
voltages of the networks of Fig. 1 are related by the equa-

Manuscript received February l , 1989; revised June 21, 1989.

W.-K. Chen is with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Com-
puter Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60680.
R . 3 . Liang is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Wuhan
Iron and Steel University, Hubei, China.
IEEE Log Number 9038697.

0018-9359/90/1100-0360$01.OO O 1990 IEEE

CHEN AND LIANG: n-PORT RECIPROCITY THEOREM

2'
v =
=
A ,

[i!, i;,
.

[ V I , v2,
*

*
A
, ii]
T

, vnlT
(5d)
(6a)
+~qLlg 2
361

e- - VI -

r;qq-LF&
v' = [vi, v;, * , (6b)
1' 2'
tJ= [e,, 02, - * 3 &IT (6c) (a)
tJr = [ a ; , 84,. . . %IT. 9
(6d) 2

Since the network N is linear, time-invariant, passive and

in the zero-state, it follows that
- - -e
V' = zi', (7)0' = zi'
1' 2'
where z is a matrix operator independent of the currents (b)
and voltages but dependent on the nature of the elements Fig. 2. A two-port network with voltage excitation and short-circuit cur-
and the topology of N . rent response.
Substituting (7) in (4) yields
i T t ~= - j r T $ ~
(gal 1 2
= -2rTdr.
(8b)
~vL-r"?-::;
i 4
Since N consists of resistors, inductors, coupled induc- - -
tors, and capacitors, the matrix operator z is symmetric,
1' 2'
or
ZT = z. (9)
Combining (8) and (9) gives
i T t ~= -ilTzT2r = - ( ~ ' T,.
)i' = -vrT2'.
(10)
From (4b) we obtain
= -vrT2r (b)
(11) Fig. 3. A two-port network with current excitation and open-circuit volt-
showing that age response.

iTtJ = UT2 (12)

or Likewise, by setting

UT2 = tJTi. (13)

.
I , = 12
?
= -1, i2 = F, = 0 (17)
In words, (12) states that the inner product remains un- in (14), we obtain
altered if v and i are interchanged, whereas in (13) this 0, = v2 (18)
product remains the same if the cap is moved from one
vector to another. The situation is depicted in Fig. 3. It states that the volt-
meter reading remains unaltered when the positions of the
111. THE TWO-PORTSPECIALCASE current source and the voltmeter are interchanged.
Finally, by setting
For n = 2, (2) becomes
v2 = 0, il = 0, i, = -i, c2 = e = i (19)
i,q + i202 = V , i I + v2i2. (14)
in (14), we have
Setting
v, = 12. (20)
vI = O2 = e, v2 = a1 = 0 (15)
Again, as indicated in Fig. 4, the interchange of the po-
in (14) yields sitions of the meter and source will not alter the meter
?
=
. reading. Thus, the two-port reciprocity theorem is a spe-
1, 17,. (16)
cial case of the general n-port reciprocity theorem.
Equation (15) is described in Fig. 2. Equation (16)
states that the ammeter reading is unaltered when the po- IV. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE
sitions of the voltage source and the ammeter are inter- Consider a four-port RLC network in zero-state, as
changed. shown in Fig. 5. Suppose that terminals 11 are connected
362 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 33, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 1990

or

62 = 5 v. (22)
REFERENCES
1‘ 2’ [ l ] W. K. Chen, Linear Networks and Systems. Monterey, CA: Brooks/
Cole, 1983.
(a)
[2] W. K.Chen, Linear Networks and Systems: Algorithms and Computer-
Aided Implementations. Singapore: World Scientific, 1990.

Wai-Kai Chen (S’61-M’61-SM’71-F’77) re-

Fig. 4. (a) A two-port network with current excitation and short-circuit
current response. (b) A two-port network with voltage excitation and
open-circuit voltage response.
1 1‘
b b
3’ 3 in 1985, a JSPS Fellowship Award from the Japan Society for the Promo-
Fig. 5. A four-port network.
ceived the B.S. and the M.S. degrees in electrical
engineering from Ohio University, Athens, in
1960 and 1961, and the Ph.D. degree from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in
February 1964.
From 1964 to 1981 he was with Ohio Univer-
sity, where he rose from Assistant Professor to be-
come a Distinguished Professor of Electrical En-
gineering in 1978. Since September 1981, he has
been Professor and Head of the Department of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Illinois
at Chicago. He is the author of eight books, and his current interests are in
broadband matching, active networks, filters, and applied graph theory es-
pecially its applications to parallel computations.
Prof. Chen is a recipient of the 1967 Lester R. Ford Award of the Math-
ematical Association of America, and a 1972 Research Institute Fellow
Award from Ohio University. He was awarded Honorary Professorships by
eight institutions in China, an Alexander von Humboldt Award (Senior
U.S. Scientist Award) by Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung of Germany
tion of Science, a Senior University Scholar Award from the University of
Illinois in 1986, a Medal of Merit from the Ohio University in 1987, and
a Distinguished Alumnus from the University of Illinois in 1988.

to a source i , = 2 A and terminals 22‘ to another current

source i2 = 4 A. The open-circuit voltages across termi-
nals 33’ and 44‘ are observed to be v3 = 12 V and v4 =
4 V, respectively. If we connect a current soyce 1, = 2
A to terminals 33’ and another current source i4 = 4 A to
terminals 44’, the open-circuit voltages across terminals
11‘ is found to be 6,= 10 V. Find the open-circuit volt-
age O2 across the terminals 22‘.
From (2) we obtain
-2 X 10 - 462 = 12 X ( - 2 ) -k 4 X (-4)
Run-Sheng Liang graduated from Wuhan Uni-
versity and Tsinghua University, China, in 1951
and 1955, respectively.
He is a professor at Wuhan Iron and Steel Uni-
versity. His main interests are in the areas of elec-
trical network theory and graph theory.
Prof. Liang is the Chairman of the Committee
of Graph Theory of Eight Provinces in Central and
Southern China, and the Vice Chairman of the
Committee of CAS of Hubei Provincial Society of
(21) Electrical Engineering.