The closest vector problem (CVP) and shortest (nonzero) vector problem (SVP)
are the core algorithmic problems on Euclidean lattices. They are central to
the applications of lattices in many problems of communications and
cryptography. Kannan's \emph{embedding technique} is a powerful technique for
solving the approximate CVP, yet its remarkable practical performance is not
well understood. In this paper, the embedding technique is analyzed from a
\emph{bounded distance decoding} (BDD) viewpoint. We present two complementary
analyses of the embedding technique: We establish a reduction from BDD to
Hermite SVP (via unique SVP), which can be used along with any Hermite SVP
solver (including, among others, the Lenstra, Lenstra and Lov\'asz (LLL)
algorithm), and show that, in the special case of LLL, it performs at least as
well as Babai's nearest plane algorithm (LLL-aided SIC). The former analysis
helps to explain the folklore practical observation that unique SVP is easier
than standard approximate SVP. It is proven that when the LLL algorithm is
employed, the embedding technique can solve the CVP provided that the noise
norm is smaller than a decoding radius λ1/(2γ), where λ1
is the minimum distance of the lattice, and γ≈O(2n/4). This
substantially improves the previously best known correct decoding bound γ≈O(2n). Focusing on the applications of BDD to decoding of
multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, we also prove that BDD of the
regularized lattice is optimal in terms of the diversity-multiplexing gain
tradeoff (DMT), and propose practical variants of embedding decoding which
require no knowledge of the minimum distance of the lattice and/or further
improve the error performance.Comment: To appear in IEEE Transactions on Information Theor