1. A method for reducing computational complexity in a MIMO-OFDM maximum likelihood decoder, said method comprising the steps of: receiving a plurality of spatial streams t 1 ,. .. , t N wherein N>1 is the number of spatial streams; searching all possible transmit points of each spatial stream, from t N to t 2 , wherein each point in t 2 generates a one dimensional problem in terms of transmit points of the spatial stream t 1 ; decomposing the x and the y components of the first spatial stream t 1 , thereby turning a two-dimensional problem into two one-dimensional problems and wherein the points to be searched in t 1 are in one column and one row; and searching the points in said one column and one row of t 1 .