That headline is quite misleading, as there are several re-configurable "software-defined" satellites active in orbit, each one presenting different degrees of flexibility. Dynamic power and frequency allocation have been used since the first HTS (Viasat-1, Echostar 23...), while dynamic bandwidth allocation is also a standard design in new satellites (Viasat-2, for example).
Furthermore, other satellites such as Hispasat 36W-1 already have direct radiating arrays / phase-arrays (which I am pretty sure is the core technology of EUTELSAT's Quantum). Sure, Quantum might be (one of) the first satellite that makes full use of this technology, but this is the current trend and all the big satellite comms. companies are going to launch a similar satellite in the next 1-2 years (SES-17, SpaceX Starlink, mPower...).
In any case, I believe that the dynamic resource management (DRM) software (which EUTELSAT claims to have developed) will play a crucial role in all these new satellites. Given the payload flexibility, optimally configuring all these degrees of freedom will become a very very challenging task.
Furthermore, other satellites such as Hispasat 36W-1 already have direct radiating arrays / phase-arrays (which I am pretty sure is the core technology of EUTELSAT's Quantum). Sure, Quantum might be (one of) the first satellite that makes full use of this technology, but this is the current trend and all the big satellite comms. companies are going to launch a similar satellite in the next 1-2 years (SES-17, SpaceX Starlink, mPower...).
In any case, I believe that the dynamic resource management (DRM) software (which EUTELSAT claims to have developed) will play a crucial role in all these new satellites. Given the payload flexibility, optimally configuring all these degrees of freedom will become a very very challenging task.