Abstract Similar to any telecommunication network, energy efficiency is a desirable feature for fiber wireless (FiWi) access networks. These networks have optical back end and wireless front end. Both ends may contribute for energy efficiency. This work focuses on front end of FiWi access network, which is IEEE 802.11a wireless local area network (WLAN). For energy saving WLAN uses power saving mode (PSM), in which sleeping opportunity of a station is increased. During sleep time, station remains switched off and results in reduction in energy required. However, it is also observed that during active period of transmission considerable energy is consumed, which is the function of rate of data transmission. More data rate results in more active energy consumption but less transmission delay and vice versa. In order to reduce active and hence total energy consumption, we tried to transmit the data at lower data rate, while maintaining transmission delay in tolerable limit. This paper presents an Energy Efficient Rate Adaptation Algorithm (EERAA) for the front end of fiber wireless access networks. Simulation results compare the energy efficiency and transmission delay of EERAA and various existing fixed data rate schemes. Proposed scheme offers good trade-off between energy efficiency and transmission delay.