  The problem of designing a multiple description vector quantizer with lattice
codebook Lambda is considered. A general solution is given to a labeling
problem which plays a crucial role in the design of such quantizers. Numerical
performance results are obtained for quantizers based on the lattices A_2 and
Z^i, i=1,2,4,8, that make use of this labeling algorithm. The high-rate
squared-error distortions for this family of L-dimensional vector quantizers
are then analyzed for a memoryless source with probability density function p
and differential entropy h(p) < infty. For any a in (0,1) and rate pair (R,R),
it is shown that the two-channel distortion d_0 and the channel 1 (or channel
2) distortions d_s satisfy lim_{R -> infty} d_0 2^(2R(1+a)) = (1/4) G(Lambda)
2^{2h(p)} and lim_{R -> infty} d_s 2^(2R(1-a)) = G(S_L) 2^2h(p), where
G(Lambda) is the normalized second moment of a Voronoi cell of the lattice
Lambda and G(S_L) is the normalized second moment of a sphere in L dimensions.
