The ideal FDDF may be defined by reference to continuous time-delay filters as described (see [1]) in equation 1, where we assume that the sampling rate is 1. From a time sequence we rebuild the original band limited continuous signal, then we delay it and finally we re-sample it in order to get .
This definition is no longer consistent when residual power remains at the Nyquist frequency. This can be understood since the phase at Nyquist frequency for any real time series is to be null. For instance, the sequence can not be time-shifted because it doesn't define a unique continuous signal. Notice that, in this case, the impulse response, the shifted cardinal sine , is not absolutely summable. Consequently FDDFs are not BIBO filters. We limit the acceptable input sequences to those without power at the Nyquist frequency. In this subspace of time sequences, FDDFs are consistent BIBO filters.