We present a communication-efficient distributed protocol for computing the Babai point, an approximate nearest point for a random vector ${bf X}inmathbb{R}^n$ in a given lattice. We show that the protocol is optimal in the sense that it minimizes the sum rate when the components of ${bf X}$ are mutually independent. We then investigate the error probability, i.e. the probability that the Babai point does not coincide with the nearest lattice point. In dimensions two and three, this probability is seen to grow with the packing density. For higher dimensions, we use a bound from probability theory to estimate the error probability for some well-known lattices. Our investigations suggest that for uniform distributions, the error probability becomes large with the dimension of the lattice, for lattices with good packing densities. We also consider the case where $mathbf{X}$ is obtained by adding Gaussian noise to a randomly chosen lattice point. In this case, the error probability goes to zero with the lattice dimension when the noise variance is sufficiently small. In such cases, a distributed algorithm for finding the approximate nearest lattice point is sufficient for finding the nearest lattice point.
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