Is this like instead of patching repeaters/simplex links together your interfacing a packet node into it?
Negative. On Echolink, there is a "text box", more of a little chat in the bottom right corner on windows versions. It's allowing mobile stations with a TNC, to participate in the text chat on the echolink conference.
IDing isn't an issue, as Echolink automatically puts CALLSIGN> as the chat name.