Mathematical aspects of the electromagnetic surface-wave propagation are examined for the dielectric core consisting of multiple sub-layers, which are embedded in the gap between the two bounding cladding metals. For this purpose, the linear problem with a partial differential wave equation is formulated into a nonlinear eigenvalue problem. The resulting eigenvalue is found to exist only for a certain combination of the material densities and the number of the multiple sub-layers. The implications of several limiting cases are discussed in terms of electromagnetic characteristics.