BARCELONA, Spain — You wouldn't necessarily link 5G with VMware. But this is Mobile World Congress, where 5G is the talk of the show, so of course VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger had to bring it up.

The glue linking VMware to 5G is network functions virtualization (NFV), and the 5G-NFV connection will be one focus area at a new Grenoble, France-based innovation center that VMware and systems integrator Atos announced today at the show.

It's long been clear that 5G will take advantage of NFV, but VMware is describing the relationship starkly.

"We believe there are going to be two types of 5G developments: one that is built on NFV and one that isn't successful," VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said during a Wednesday morning session with press and analysts.

Atos, a longtime partner, supplied IT services to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, so part of the Grenoble facility's mission will be to prep 5G-related technologies for use at the 2020 games in Tokyo.

Gelsinger didn't describe the innovation center as strictly a "5G" entity, but it's clear the first projects housed there will focus on the relationship between 5G and communications infrastructure, with NFV topping the to-do list.

"5G is actually going to be useless without NFV," said Shekar Ayyar, executive vice president of VMware's Telco NFV group, later in the morning session. "You can buy all the spectrum you want, but if you don't have a virtualized infrastructure, you're never going to be able to leverage that 5G infrastructure to the extent that you can."

Security will be another area of focus, particularly the ways in which physical security and cybersecurity will interlock.

Patrick Adiba, Atos' chief commercial officer, touched on what's become a common theme in security: the need for automation in order to keep up with the amount of data generated by security systems. During the 17 days of the Rio games, Atos' systems saw 100 billion security events.

"No human being could understand or address those events," Adiba said. "The system should be able to block any threat immediately."

The lab also plans to research immersive experiences to go with the games — hologram broadcasts or interactive spectating could be two examples, Adiba said.