It is the aim of this work to develop a two-dimensional (2-D) analysis for the electromagnetic field distribution in distributed feedback (DFB) structures. This analysis is based on an equivalent network for the 2-D wave equation which must be satisfied by the components of both electric and magnetic field. The parameters of the equivalent network are determined from the physical parameters of the DFB structure in a straightforward manner. The zero-input response of this equivalent network leads to the dispersion relation for the modes guided by the DFB structure. The method has been applied to a number of optical components utilizing a DFB structure like DFB lasers, optical filters, and multi quantum well DFB lasers. A comparison with common methods of analysis shows that the network modeling yields accurate numerical results. At the same time its computational efficiency can be maintained quite high.