Signals with finite rate of innovation are those signals having finite degrees of freedom per unit of time that specify them. In this paper, we introduce a prototypical space V q ( , ) modeling signals with finite rate of innovation, such as stream of (different) pulses found in GPS applications, cellular radio and ultra wideband communication. In particular, the space V q ( , ) is generated by a family of well-localized molecules of similar size located on a relatively separated set using q coefficients, and hence is locally finitely generated. Moreover that space V q ( , ) includes finitely generated shift-invariant spaces, spaces of non-uniform splines, and the twisted shift-invariant space in Gabor (Wilson) system as its special cases. Use the well-localization property of the generator , we show that if the generator is a frame for the space V 2 ( , ) and has polynomial (sub-exponential) decay, then its canonical dual (tight) frame has the same polynomial (sub-exponential) decay. We apply the above result about the canonical dual frame to the study of the Banach frame property of the generator for the space V q ( , ) with q = 2, and of the polynomial (sub-exponential) decay property of the mask associated with a refinable function that has polynomial (sub-exponential) decay.Keywords frame · Banach frame · localized frame · signals with finite rate of innovation · space of homogenous type · matrix algebra · refinable function · wavelets Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000) Primary 42C40 · Secondary 47B37 · 46C07