The IEEE 802.11 compliant stations can transmit at multiple transmission rates. Selection of an appropriate transmission rate plays a significant role in determining the overall efficiency of a communication system. The technique which determines the channel state information and accordingly selects an appropriate transmission rate is called rate-adaptation protocol. The IEEE 802.11 standard does not provide standard specification for implementing a rate-adaptation protocol for its multi-rate capable wireless stations. Due to the lack of standard specification, there is a myriad of rate-adaptation protocols, proposed by industry and various research institutes. This paper surveys the existing rate-adaptation schemes, discusses various features which contribute significantly in the process of rate-adaptation, the timing constraints on such schemes, and the performance gains in terms of throughput, delay and energy efficiency; which can be gained by the use of rate-adaptation. The paper also discusses the implication of rate-adaptation schemes on the performance of overall communication and identifies existing research challenges in the design of rate-adaptation schemes.