A system comprising: an access network element of an access network that is configured to communicate with a plurality of devices (110; 111) over an air interface, wherein a multiple access modulation format is used on a physical layer of the air interface that segments the physical layer into radio resources in a time domain and in a frequency domain; the access network element comprising: a scheduling mechanism; and a pattern database configured to store a plurality of sharing patterns predefined for different conditions that each comprise a different mapping of the radio resources on the physical layer of the air interface between Machine-Type Communications, further referred to as MTC, and non-MTC and wherein the sharing patterns stored in the pattern database each include selection criteria for selecting among the plurality of sharing patterns for a resource sharing window; the radio resources comprise sub-frames in the time domain, and narrowbands in the frequency domain; each sharing pattern allocates first sub-frames to MTC and second sub-frames to non-MTC on at least one of the narrowbands; the scheduling mechanism is configured to identify the resource sharing window, to receive input indicating conditions in the access network, to select a first sharing pattern from the plurality of sharing patterns in the pattern database for the resource sharing window based on the selection criteria and the conditions in the access network, to schedule MTC transmissions on the air interface at a beginning of the resource sharing window based on the first sharing pattern, and to schedule non-MTC transmissions on the air interface at the beginning of the resource sharing window based on the first sharing pattern. an access network element of an access network that is configured to communicate with a plurality of devices (110; 111) over an air interface, wherein a multiple access modulation format is used on a physical layer of the air interface that segments the physical layer into radio resources in a time domain and in a frequency domain; the access network element comprising: a scheduling mechanism; and a pattern database configured to store a plurality of sharing patterns predefined for different conditions that each comprise a different mapping of the radio resources on the physical layer of the air interface between Machine-Type Communications, further referred to as MTC, and non-MTC and wherein the sharing patterns stored in the pattern database each include selection criteria for selecting among the plurality of sharing patterns for a resource sharing window; the radio resources comprise sub-frames in the time domain, and narrowbands in the frequency domain; each sharing pattern allocates first sub-frames to MTC and second sub-frames to non-MTC on at least one of the narrowbands; the scheduling mechanism is configured to identify the resource sharing a scheduling mechanism; and a pattern database configured to store a plurality of sharing patterns predefined for different conditions that each comprise a different mapping of the radio resources on the physical layer of the air interface between Machine-Type Communications, further referred to as MTC, and non-MTC and wherein the sharing patterns stored in the pattern database each include selection criteria for selecting among the plurality of sharing patterns for a resource sharing window; the radio resources comprise sub-frames in the time domain, and narrowbands in the frequency domain; each sharing pattern allocates first sub-frames to MTC and second sub-frames to non-MTC on at least one of the narrowbands; the scheduling mechanism is configured to identify the resource sharing window, to receive input indicating conditions in the access network, to select a first sharing pattern from the plurality of sharing patterns in the pattern database for the resource sharing window based on the selection criteria and the conditions in the access network, to schedule MTC transmissions on the air interface at a beginning of the resource sharing window based on the first sharing pattern, and to schedule non-MTC transmissions on the air interface at the beginning of the resource sharing window based on the first sharing pattern.