The present disclosure relates to a 5G or pre-5G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate than a 4G communication system such as LTE. The present disclosure relates to a method for a transmission end to estimate a channel in a communication system supporting multiple input multiple output (MIMO)-based beamforming, the method comprising: a step of obtaining a candidate channel estimate of each of a plurality of candidate beam combinations by means of a channel estimation section corresponding to each of the plurality of candidate beam combinations, the combinations consisting of at least one transmission beam and at least one reception beam from among transmission beams of the transmission end and reception beams of a reception end, wherein the channel estimation section corresponding to each of the plurality of candidate beam combinations comprises a serving channel estimation section corresponding to a serving beam combination of the transmission end and the reception end, a channel gain estimation section of one candidate beam combination of the plurality of candidate beam combinations, and a channel estimation section of the candidate beam combination; and a step of obtaining an optimal channel estimation value of the transmission end and the reception end on the basis of the obtained candidate channel estimates.