In Shannon's paper, "Communication in the Presence of noise [1], in section 3: Geometric Representation of the signals, Shannon presents an integral for a sinc based function.
Shannon represents a signal, limited by bandwidth $W$, as:
$$ f(t) = \sum_{n=1}^{2TW}x_n\frac{\sin\pi(2tW - n)}{\pi(2tW - n)}\ $$
Where $T$ is the duration of signal, $W$ is the bandwidth and $x_n$ is the amplitude of the $n$th sample.
He then evaluates the integral of $f(t)^2$:
$$ \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}f(t)^2dx = \frac{1}{2W}\sum_{}^{}x_n^2 $$
given that:
$$ \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{\sin\pi(2Wt-m)}{\pi(2Wt-m)}\frac{\sin\pi(2Wt-n)}{\pi(Wt-n)}dt =\begin{cases} 0 &m \neq n \\ \frac{1}{2W}&m=n \end{cases} $$
This last part here is where my confusion lies. Where did "$m$" come from? Where did the $2$ go in the denominator? I understand that sinc equals zero on intervals of $\pi$, but the piecewise part of this still confuses me.
[1] C.E. Shannon, Communication in the Presence of Noise, DOI: 10.1109/JRPROC.1949.232969
He is using different letters for the index, ie.
$$ f(t) = \sum_{n=1}^{2TW}x_n\frac{\sin\pi(2tW - n)}{\pi(2tW - n)}$$
$$ f(t) = \sum_{m=1}^{2TW}x_m\frac{\sin\pi(2tW - m)}{\pi(2tW - m)}$$
Then
$$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}f^2(t) dt = \sum_{n=1}^{2TW}x_n \sum_{m=1}^{2TW}x_m \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{\sin\pi(2tW - n)}{\pi(2tW - n)} \frac{\sin\pi(2tW - m)}{\pi(2tW - m)} dt $$
If $m\neq n$ do the substitution $v = \pi(2tW-n)$ and use this result
$$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{\sin\pi(2tW - n)}{\pi(2tW - n)} \frac{\sin\pi(2tW - m)}{\pi(2tW - m)} dt = \frac{1}{2\pi W} \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{\sin v}{v} \frac{\sin(v+\pi(n-m))}{(v+\pi(n-m))} dt = 0 $$
If $m=n$ do the same substitution:
$$ \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{\sin^2\pi(2tW - n)}{\left[\pi(2tW - n)\right]^2} dt = \frac{1}{2\pi W} \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \frac{\sin^2 v}{v^2} dv = \frac{1}{\pi W} \int_{0}^{\infty} \frac{\sin v^2}{v^2}dv = \frac{1}{2W} $$
There are a lot of ways to evaluate this last integral, see here