Systems and methods providing a wakeup receiver for latency-critical applications are described herein. An example system includes a wakeup receiver communicatively coupled to a communication channel. The wakeup receiver is configured to monitor an input signal of the communication channel and down-convert the input signal to a DC signal. The system also includes an analog to digital converter (ADC) configured to digitize the DC signal and provide an ADC output. The system further includes a digital baseband (DBB) module configured to determine a received signal strength indication (RSSI) from the signal. The DBB is also configured to, for each packet, determine a respective packet length and compare the RSSI and respective packet length with a two-dimensional template. The DBB is additionally configured to, based on the comparison, determine an interrupt condition and, based on determining the interrupt condition, generate a wakeup signal.