对于多径稀疏的多输入多输出正交频分复用(Multiple-input and muItipIe-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing,MIMO-OFDM)信道,提出了基于广义Akaike信息论准则(Generalized Akaike information criterion,GAIC)的MIMO-OFDM系统实用的信道估计算法,该算法能够估计出信道的长度和每径信道的时延,降低加性白噪声对信道估计的影响,提高信道估计的精度.通过仿真,与最小二来(Least squares,LS)算法和离散傅里叶变换(Discrete Fourier transform,DFT)算法相比较,大大地降低了信道的估计误差,提高了系统性能,且信道稀疏性越强,性能改善越好.