Systems and methods for improving data throughput in an interference-rich wireless environment are described herein. Some illustrative embodiments include a method including receiving a modulated radio frequency (RF) signal including a message packet, identifying a preamble of the message packet generating a correlated preamble by combining the message packet preamble with a correlation sequence corresponding to an expected preamble, determining a characteristic of a correlated signal representing the correlated preamble, comparing the determined characteristic of the correlated signal to a first threshold value, and discarding the message packet if the determined characteristic of the correlated signal is below the first threshold value.