This paper addresses set invariance properties for linear time-delay systems. More precisely, the first goal of the article is to review known necessary and/or sufficient conditions for the existence of invariant sets with respect to dynamical systems described by linear discrete time-delay difference equations (dDDEs). Secondly, we address the construction of invariant sets in the original state space (also called D-invariant sets) by exploiting the forward mappings. The notion of D-invariance is appealing since it provides a region of attraction, which is difficult to obtain for delay systems without taking into account the delayed states in some appropriate extended state space model. The present paper contains a sufficient condition for the existence of ellipsoidal D-contractive sets for dDDEs, and a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of D-invariant sets in relation to linear time-varying dDDE stability. Another contribution is the clarification of the relationship between convexity (convex hull operation) and D-invariance of linear dDDEs. In short, it is shown that the convex hull of the union of two or more D-invariant sets is not necessarily D-invariant, while the convex hull of a non-convex D-invariant set is D-invariant.@en

This paper deals with set invariance for time delay systems. The first goal of the paper is to review the known necessary or sufficient conditions for the existence of invariant sets with respect to dynamical systems described by discrete-time delay difference equations (dDDEs). Secondly, we address the construction of invariant sets in the original state space (also called D-invariant sets) by exploiting the forward mappings. As novelties, the present paper contains a sufficient condition for the existence of ellipsoidal D-contractive sets for dDDEs, and a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of 22-invariant sets in relation to time-varying dDDE stability. Another contribution is the clarification of the relationship between convexity (convex hull operation) and D-invariance. In short, it is shown that the convex hull of two D-invariant sets is not D-invariant but the convex hull of a non-convex D-invariant, set is D-invariant,.@en